A Qualitative Assessment of Factors Precipitating Intergroup Conflicts in Nigerian Universities.

Abstract

The environmental and social political context of a university may have direct import on factors that can create conflict situations among the various groups that make up the university; academic, non academic and university administration. Consequently this paper takes a critical assessment of six universities (private, state and federal universities) selected in the Western part of Nigeria in order to assess the factors that have led to intergroup conflicts between these groups using university ownership as a critical variable of analysis. A total of 58 in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives and stakeholders of the various groups (academic, non-academic and the university administration) who were purposively selected from six universities selected on the basis of ownership. The findings of this study revealed that there are basically similar causes of intergroup conflicts identified by the three groups on the basis of ownership. Hence, the academic, and non-academic staff had similar views with regards to causes of intergroup conflicts. The disclosed contrary to the notion generally held that private universities are relatively less fraught with intergroup conflicts, the paper conluded that information obtained from these private universities on the factors precipitating intergruop conflicts among these groups was given with utmost caution and (especially by the university administration) since there was a dire need to project the universities positively for utmost economic gains. IFE PsychologIA Vol. 16 (1) 2007: pp. 72-89