IMPACT OF UNIVERSITY FUNDING ON ACADEMIC RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN ENUGU STATE

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of university funding on academic research productivity among public universities in Enugu State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The researcher adopted descriptive survey research design for the study. The population for the study was 544 respondents which comprised89 management staff and 455 academic staff. There was no sampling procedure because the population is manageable. The instrument for data collection was a researchers’ developed questionnaire titled “Impact of University Funding on Academic Research Productivity Questionnaire (IUFARPQ)” which contained 12 items. The instrument was validated by three research experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined by the use of Cronbach Alpha statistic which yielded .82 for cluster 1 and .80 for cluster 2 with an overall reliability index of .81 which made the instrument reliable and was used for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that university funding impacts improved research infrastructure and diversification of research areas in Enugu State. In view of the findings, the study recommended among others that policy makers and university administrators should prioritize sustainable funding strategies to foster a vibrant research ecosystem in Enugu State.