Challenges of Human Capacity Development in Federal Universities in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the challenges of human capacity development in Universities and the possible strategies for improvement. Three research questions were posed to guide the study. A survey design was adopted and simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 500 lecturers from a population of 1,819 academic staff from two Federal Universities in Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire developed by the researchers and was titled “Challenges of Human Capacity Development Questionnaire (CHCDQ)”. The instrument was a 5-point Likert scale. Cronbach alpha reliability method was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument and a reliability coefficient of 0.88 was obtained.  Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics – means, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages. Results of the study revealed that inadequate funding, corruption/examination malpractice, lack of effective monitoring/supervision of teaching and learning, lack of committed teachers, students’ poor attitude towards learning, inadequate facilities and certificate racketeering were identified as constraints to  human capacity development in Universities. Male and female lecturers did not differ in their mean rating of the challenges of human capacity building. In the light of these findings, it was recommended among other things that the government should adequately fund federal Universities in Nigeria to enhance quality human capacity building and lecturers should be given adequate incentives to motivate them to be committed to the training of students for quality outputs.

Key words: Challenges, Human Capacity, Development, University , Education.