Assessing Motivational and Retention Strategies Employed to Retain Academic Staff: Evidence from Selected Universities

Abstract

Academic staff is a key resource in higher education institutions (HEIs) and therefore has a major role in the achievement of the objectives of these institutions. Satisfied and well-motivated academic staff can build a national and international reputation for themselves and their institutions. Retention strategies strengthen the capacities of organizations to attract and retain their workforce. Three universities were purposely selected, namely University of Iringa (UoI), Ruaha Catholic University (RUCU) and Mkwawa University College of Education (MUCE), within Iringa municipality. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. The study findings revealed that there are strategies employed by all three universities such as provision of competitive remuneration, scholarship provision, research and consultancy opportunity, workload allowances, recruitment of retainable academic staff, scholarship provision, bounding of five years after training, gratuity payment, scholarship, extra duty/ overtime allowances, quarterly meeting with academic staff, bank loan guarantee, marking and invigilation allowances and soft loans (land). MUCE had additional strategies like land loan and quarterly meeting as feedback mechanism, while RUCU provided gratuity, UoI provided competitive remuneration and seminars/ trainings. However, there are no clear and defined academic staff motivation and retention strategies in the universities under the study.