Abstract:
Academic research
represents the backbone of hu
man activity in improving the
quality of life through
expanding frontiers of academic knowledge
,
and making further research possible throughout the
world. Academic research aims at providing
solutions for many current problems
.
Research is
a
vital
and necessary part of modern university education,
where
universities are
perceived to be
producers of
new knowledge.
The Kenya government is restructuring tertiary education
with
a view to re align it to
the country’s economic blue p
rint, the vision 2030
,
and the new constitution. This calls for universities
to be more innovative and research focused. Universities that do not build and strengthen their
research capac
ity will be severely restricted
hence;
academics must
carry out
more
research
and
publish
.
This study was designed to assess the
perceptions
of academic staff in
Kenyan universities
towards research and
publishing
,
and to find out if the
expressed
perceptions
were
influenced by
academic staff’s characteristics such as
gende
r, type of university, age group, rank, highest degree
obtained, years since last highest degree was obtained and associated university.
Survey research
design
was
employed in this study. The questionnaire was used to collect information
from university
ac
ademic staff drawn from 11 public and private universities.
Seven
hypotheses were tested.
The
information was analyzed by
use of
descriptive statistics.
Scientific
package for social sciences
(
SPSS
,
Version 15) was used to
analyse
descriptive statistics wh
ile
analysis of variance
(
ANOVA
)
was used in
hypothesis testing
. The results obtained from this study indicate that
there was a lower
perception
towards research and publishing by younger generation lecturers compared to the older academics.
The main recom
mendation made by this study is
for each individual university to be encouraged to
foster a
deliberate
positive
research and
publishing culture in their institutions.