TETFund International Programmes and Academic Staff Development of Selected Universities in South East Nigeria

Abstract

It is commonplace to see academic staff (teaching staff) in Nigerian Universities stagnated for a long period of time that is without promotions, due to lack of funds for further academic development and publications. The popular syndrome of “publish or perish” has, over the time, had its toll on academic staff of Nigerian Universities. As succour, the Federal Government of Nigeria set up Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in 2011 as an intervening agency, to, among other objectives, fund academic staff trainings in tertiary institutions within and outside the country. It has, however, been worrisome that many Universities have not been accessing funds allocated to them due to their inability to fulfil the conditions attached and thereby depriving academic staff of the opportunity of accessing Government funds for academic advancement. This work titled “TETFund International Programmes and Academic Staff Development in South East Nigeria” an attempt to determine the extent to which Universities in the South Eastern part of Nigeria have been able to access and utilize funds allocated to them by this agency with respect to training of academic staff overseas. Two universities were selected for this work viz; University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. Published works of TETFund as well as literature on related terms were reviewed. The survey research was adopted as research design. Primary data were collected with the aid of questionnaire and analysed with correlation coefficient. It was found that there is positive significant relationship between TETFund’s international training programmes and academic staff advancement/development in the Universities in South East of Nigeria. It further revealed that funds allocated to these Universities overtime were under accessed due to their inability to meet conditions. It was recommended that the Universities should expedite action to meeting the conditions for assessment by getting better acquainted with the modalities/conditions for assessment. It is recommended that the Universities should avoid partiality in nominating staff for trainings, conferences and workshops. As well, it was recommended that TETFund should give opportunity to institutions that missed their funds to access them in the next year.