Al-Hikmah University Journal

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.