Assessment of the Effect of Compensation on Attraction of Academic Staff in Selected Universities in Nigeria

Abstract

This study is an assessment of the effect of compensation on attraction of academic staff in selected  universities in Nigeria. One of the most challenging tasks in organization management is the ability  of the management to attract the best brains among many that would put in their best during the  course of discharging their duties and to prevent premature leaving of workers from the  organization. In 2009, the Federal Government, after negotiation with the Academic Staff Union of  Universities (ASUU), came up with an upgraded salary structure; “Consolidated University  Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONUASS)” made up of the basic salary, peculiar and other  allowances for the academic staff in Nigerian universities with the aim of ensuring adequate  compensation capable of attracting and retaining quality academic staff in the Nigerian  universities. After a while due to rising level in inflation, the salary was rendered inadequate. To  this end, the introduction of the CONUASS did not achieved the desired result of ensuring a fair  compensation package for the academic staff in the Nigerian universities and attraction of the best  brain within the local environment and abroad. Nigeria is placed among the group of countries with  low pay for university academic staff and high rate of brain drain among academics leaving their  university system for other universities abroad and high paying public sector agencies. The  objective of this paper is to examine the effect of compensation package of the Nigerian universities  on attraction of quality academic staff into selected Nigerian universities. The research used cross sectional survey where the instruments for data collection were interview and questionnaires.  Linear Regression Analysis of SPSS 20.0 was used to test the hypothesis. Findings revealed that compensation had significant effects on attraction of quality academic staff in Ahamdu Bello  University, Zaria and Kaduna State University. On the other hand, result in Al-Qalam University,  Katsina, showed that compensation had no significant effect on attraction of academic staff into the  university. In order to ensure that quality academic staff both from local and international  environments are hired into Nigerian universities, pay package for academic staff should be  reviewed periodically. To this, as against the traditional way of constitution of negotiation and  renegotiation committees which were normally set up as a result of industrial action(s) by university  unions, a special presidential standing committee should be constituted and be given mandate of  due periodic review of academic staff salaries without recourse to industrial action. In order words,  the government should be proactive rather than reactive in review of university lecturers’ salaries.