Exploring the Goldmine for Academic Staff Profession Development Programmes in Nigerian Public Universities

Abstract

The paper examined the state of the academic staffing situation in Nigerian Public Universities with various factors constraining their professional development. Funding was identified as a major factor with attendant consequences such as brain drain, academic staff deficit, structural imbalance in the distribution of academic staff and inadequate capacity-building programmes for their staff. The paper observed that most Nigerian universities lack the framework for internal staff development programmes for their academic staff. Various internal capacity building programmes that could be organized using senior academic staff within these universities were proposed. The paper identified professional development programmes in four world-class universities as models that could be adapted by Nigerian universities. The paper concluded that available potentials for academic staff development within Nigerian Public Universities remain largely untapped.