Academic Staff Research Productivity in Private Universities in Southwestern Nigeria: Factors Related to Low Research Productivity

Abstract

Research productivity (teaching, research, and community service) in any university is the totality of academic staff academic achievement within a given period of time which is partly used for university ranking. There has been a renewed interest in the debate about the quality and quantity of research output and the factors which influence the output of university lecturers at the same time. Therefore, this study assessed the level of academic staff research productivity in private universities in Southwestern, Nigeria. The survey design of the correlational type was adopted. Proportional to size and stratified random sampling techniques were used to select 30% of academic staff across the various ranks in the selected universities, making a total of 657. Academic staff research productivity (= 2.02) was low as against the norm test of 3.00. Low research productivity can be overcome if investment in research at private universities is increased and academic staff utilise them in line with the emerging digital trend in universities around the world.