Abstract:
The current academic climate in higher education in Kenya threatens the Kenyan
universities' ability to sustain the conditions that support research productivity. Increased
demands on government and private funding, a deteriorating physical infrastructure,
increased pressure on undergraduate programs, university expansion strategies and
general economic climate in the country have raised concerns about the continued
capacity of universities to maintain teaching, research productivity and service to the
community. This mandates deliberate efforts made to find out the progress made in the
research arena at all times. It is only through these assessments that a nation can be able
to know whether it is making any meaningful scientific progress or not.
The study sought to examine the following; factors that influence research
productivity, the attitude of academic staff to research and publishing among academic
staff and possible ways to enhance research productivity. Survey research design and
document analysis were employed in this study. The questionnaire was used to collect
information from 277 (70.2% male and 29.8% female) university academic staff and 17
heads of departments drawn from 11 public and private universities. The information was
analyzed by descriptive statistics. SPSS (Version 15) was used to do descriptive statistics,
cross tabulations and ANOV A. Factor analysis was used for data reduction, identification
and description of the major factors influencing research productivity as noted by
respondents. Document analysis dwelt on the analysis of the sampled research policies of
the selected universities. Information from these documents revealed that most
universities were not keen in the area of staff professional development.
The results obtained from this study indicate that the research productivity index
for the universities in Kenya is low. Personal career development, institutional and
demographic factors are the main factors influencing research productivity. There was
found to be significant relationship between age group, highest degree obtained,
individual university and highest degree obtained and attitude towards research and
publishing. The main recommendation made by this study is for the development of
national and institutional research policies to guide and manage research in this country.
