RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.4 Research Setting
The study was conducted in the School of Nursing at University of KwaZulu-NataI. The School of Nursing falls under the Faculty of Health Sciences in the College of Health Sciences. According to the Faculty of Health Sciences Handbook (2008), postgraduate programmes offered by the School of Nursing are Honours, Masters and PhD degree programmes both on a fulltime and a part time
basis. The faculty handbook states that the Honours degree stretches over a two year period on a part time basis and one year on a fulltime basis. The Master's degree on the other hand is offered over a one year period on a fulltime basis and 2 years on a part time basis while a PhD fulltime programme stretches over three years on full time basis and five years on part time basis.
3.5 Study Population
Population refers to the whole set of individuals or elements that meet the researcher's set criteria of selection (Bums & Grove, 2005). The target population for this study was 83 registered postgraduate nursing students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. According to the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Fact Site, (2008) and the School of Nursing records (2008), 83 students registered for postgraduate courses in the school of nursing. Of this total, 3 were registered for the Honours programme, 64 for the Coursework Master's programme, 3 for a Masters degree by research and 13 for a PhD.
3.6 Sampling
Bums and Grove (2005) define sampling as a selection of elements within a population that are considered to accurately reflect the population studied in relation to the variables under investigation and other factors that may influence those variables.
Sampling for Quantitative Methods: For the quantitative aspect of this study, a convenience non-probability sampling technique was used to select a sample of participants. In this type of sampling, participants were selected on the basis of their availability at the time of data collection as expressed by Bums and Grove (2005). Katzellenbogen, loubert and Abdool Karim (2005) and Bums and Grove, (2005 criticise this technique for its inability to eliminate biases. In this study,
such biases were minimised by including every available member of the study population to maximise representativity.
Sampling for Qualitative Methods: Qualitative data were collected through two focus group interviews; one consisted of local students and another one comprised of international students.
The researcher believed that soliciting data from these groups would provide a better understanding of specific issues related to each group. Convenience sampling was used to selected participants in each group. The researcher approached those students who were on campus attending lecturers. Most of the coursework postgraduate students attended their lectures on Wednesdays and Fridays while individual schedules were arranged with Masters by research and PhD students.
According to Green (2007), the use of focus groups has a number of advantages some of which are that a focus group may assume more control over the data collection process than a single interviewee at a time. Using focus groups also allows for the diversity of views to be studied and allows participants to structure their discussion in their own terms as opposed to the investigator's views. These are likely to minimise the investigator's bias. Within this study, focus groups provided consistent and detailed infonnation that individual interviews would have provided.
3.7 Data Collection
3.7.1 Data collection Tools
This study started by first collecting quantitative data and then qualitative data from participants.
Quantitative data were collected using a self reported questionnaire which was developed by the
researcher (See Appendix 1). The questionnaire consisted of 4 parts that corresponded to the major concepts in the conceptual framework. The first section looked at students' entry characteristics, the second looked at students' expectations from postgraduate education at the university and what the university expects from them, the third looked at both the university and student engagement, while the fourth section was concerned with student outcomes.
Qualitative data were collected through focus group interviews using a semi- structured interview guide. The interviews were guided by four main questions and probing questions were used for an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation (See Appendix 2).
3.7.2 Data Collection Process
To gain access to the study participants, a list of registered postgraduate students was obtained from the School of Nursing. Lecture timetables were consulted to identify the days when most of the postgraduate students would be on campus. The researcher also used the university e-mail system (GroupWise) address book to search for all the registered postgraduate nursing students' e- mail addresses (which corresponded to their registered student number) and sent e-mails to them explaining the purpose of the study and inviting them to participate. Prior arrangements were made with lecturers to have access to students in their free time, especially during break time.
Postgraduate students were invited to participate in the study after explaining the purpose of the study and the rights of the participants. Suitable times were then negotiated with participants for data collection. A meeting with coursework postgraduate students was arranged during the days when they came to the University for Lectures. Separate convenient schedules were arranged with research and PhD students.
Data were collected in two stages. During the first stage, questionnaires were administered to all participants, while during the second stage two focus group interviews were conducted. One focus group comprised international students while the second group included local postgraduate students. The selection of these two focus groups was based on the understanding that these were the only highly diverse and relatively large distinct groups within the study population. The international students group was diverse in the sense that it consisted of students from different backgrounds from within and beyond Africa, while the local group was diverse in terms of age, educational background, family responsibilities and work environments.
The data collection process took four weeks. The first week was used to invite study participants;
the second and third weeks were used to administer questionnaires to different groups within the study population, while the fourth week was used to conduct focus group interviews. During data collection, convenient private venues were selected to meet the study participants. Each questionnaire took about 20 minutes to complete after which participants put them in a secure box which had been provided. For focus group interviews, convenient venues were selected to meet the interviewees. The identity of the investigator, the purpose, and nature of the interview were explained in an introductory note. The interviews began by posing general questions about the interviewees' experiences with an interlude of probing questions in between. Although each interview was audio recorded, the investigator had an assistant who took note of particular proceedings of interest such as facial expressions and the participants' mood, which were likely to escape the researcher's attention. Each focus group interview lasted about one hour.
Given the sensitivity of this study and the outcome of the focus group interviews that reflected an atmosphere of venting and an expression of the participants' emotions, the researcher also decided
to verify some of the participants' views by interviewing other members of the university community who, in the researcher's view would bring more insight into the controversial issues expressed by the study participants. Among those other interviewees were some members of staff of the International Student Support Office (lSSO) and the university main library at the Howard College Campus.