EVALUATION OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC STAFF PARTICIPATION IN ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Abstract

This study evaluates private university academic staff participation in academic entrepreneurship in Southwest Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design, the population consisted of four thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven, while the sample comprised one thousand, three hundred and nineteen academic staff of private universities in Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo in the Southwest of Nigeria, which were selected through proportionate and simple random sampling techniques. An adapted questionnaire, the Academic Entrepreneurship Scale (r= 0.92), was used for data collection in the study. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a t-test (to find the significant difference in the engagement of academic staff in academic entrepreneurship). The result showed a low engagement in academic entrepreneurship among the academic staff at private universities in the Southwest of Nigeria (Mean = 61.89). It also showed that male and female teaching staff showed no significant difference in their engagement in academic entrepreneurship (t = 1.250, P > 0.05). The study concluded that academic staff engagement in academic entrepreneurship is low in private universities. It is thus recommended that private universities should provide facilities and make decisions that will allow teaching staff to engage in academic entrepreneurship