Academic staff recruitment and retention challenges at the University of Botswana medical school.

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa has a greater share of the global burden of disease, poverty, and inadequate human resources for healthcompared with other regions of the world. Botswana, as other regional countries, is failing to successfully recruit and retain academics atits medical school. To document the medical school's staff recruitment and retention trends and challenges, and to propose possible solutions. This was a descriptive research study involving review and analysis of the University of Botswana medical school's staff numbertargets, actual numbers on post, and other relevant publicly available university documents. The numbers and country of origin of staffrecruited from 2008 to 2013 were recorded. Net staff gain or loss per year was then calculated. Student numbers were analysed and relatedto staff availability. As there was a multilevel change in university management in 2011, the periods and events before and after April 2011were analysed. Publicly available University of Botswana documents about the university's organisational structure, policies, and processeswere reviewed. Over a 5-year period, the school recruited 74 academics worldwide; 30 of them left the school. Retention was a greater challengethan recruitment. The school had difficulty recruiting locals and senior academics, regardless of specialty. It appears that staff loss occurredregardless of country of origin. The authors suggest that multilevel change in management was one of the most likely contributors to the school's recruitmentand retention challenges. The University of Botswana must comprehensively address these.