Factors influencing research productivity among academic staff in selected public and private universities in kenya

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.