ACADEMIC STAFF TURNOVER IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

Abstract

The issue of academic turnover in Nigerian universities poses severe challenge to university system as a sizable number of proven scholars from the institutions have migrated abroad in search of greener pastures in the last two decades, while many of them have been absorbed into universities and Centers of Research in Europe, America and Asian countries. Nigerian universities have witnessed a series of industrial conflicts due to the failure of the employers to review their conditions of service and the progressive encroachment upon the power and authority of the governing council as well as internal day-to-day administration of universities through government directives Thus, job continuity and turnover among University lecturers has often attracted the attention of educational administrators, planners, policy makers, agencies and relevant stakeholders. Therefore, the study examined academic staff turnover in Nigerian universities: challenges and way forwards. The concept of turnover was scholarly examined from different perspectives. Specifically, it discusses the causes, such as: inadequate funding of education, poor conditions of service for academics when compared to their counterparts abroad, poor state of infrastructural facilities, oppression of academic staff and interference of government in institution’s internal affairs among others. The study concluded that the magnitude at which academics leave universities in Nigeria poses serious challenges to university education in the country. To curtail this menace in Nigerian universities, adequate funding of universities, provision and rehabilitation of decay infrastructures, open administration, non-interference of government in university internal affairs and wooing professionals in diaspora back to the country become imperative.