Stemming the tide of career disorientation among senior academics in the less developed countries

Abstract
This paper is prompted by the commonly observed trend in Nigerian tertiary educational institutions for many senior academics, such as university professors, associate professors, senior lecturers and in very many cases, polytechnic/college chief lecturers, to suspend core academic work for other attractions. The quality-eroding implications for higher education then seem sufficient enough to justify an attempt to draw global attention to the problem of academic career disorientation (ACD). It is hoped that the subsequent empirical validation of this paper’s conclusions can be of use to all other developing Commonwealth countries as well. 

Introduction
A very useful criterion for assessing the quality of instruction, research output, community impact, economic self-reliance and internal management/administration at any tertiary educational institution is the proportion of top-ranking academics on the regular staff roll. Underlying the reliance on this criterion is the assumption that everyone on the staff roll is actively engaged within the institution; concerned specifically in the academic or professional specialty indicated against their name. The actual situation today, however, is that a very large number of Nigerian professors, associate professors (also called readers) and senior lecturers, simply just have their names maintained on their respective university staff rolls while they are no longer actively serving at that university. As it stands, this internal or external drift of scholars from teaching and research has resulted in a very serious drop in the quality of primary academic jobs. The sad truth is that the parents/guardians, who are members of the top echelons in politics, the civil/public service and business/industry, know of this. Subsequently, many parents and guardians have responded by moving their children/wards from the public universities, which have been the worst hit, to either NUC-licensed private universities within Nigeria, or to foreign universities. The purpose of this briefing paper is to provide some questions, which have yet to be researched, and then to derive and present theoretical conclusions for future empirical validation in the respective tertiary education subsectors of Nigeria and all the other developing commonwealth nations possibly experiencing this brain drain.

Suggested Researchable Question (RSQs)
(In what follows, each Commonwealth nation can substitute its name for NCN).

SRQ1 What is the observed scale of academic career disorientation in NCN? 

SRQ2 Which of the scholar-acknowledged possible causes of ACD might be judged strongest in NCN?

SRQ3 What so far might be the strongest adverse effects of ACD in NCN?

SRQ4 What practical combative measures might be the most effectively applicable against ACD in NCN?

SRQ5 What possible modifications from the collective viewpoint of serving academics might most effectively stabilise dedicated career advancement (DCA) for senior academics in NCN?

Theoretical Responses (THRs)
An attempt is made in this section to provide a response to each suggested researchable question. SRQ5 has been used as the basis for making two recommendations.

THR1. The scale of the ACD problem is very large in the Nigeria tertiary education system.

THR2. The strongest causes of the ACD problem in Nigeria include avarice, job disloyalty and educational deficiency among serving scholars.

THR3. The strongest adverse effects of ACD on the Nigeria tertiary education sub-system include disrupted student learning, compromised quality of teaching and neglected or poor research output.

THR4.  The most viable combative measures against ACD in Nigeria include enhancing the material rewards of lectureship and research, while restricting entrance to applicants using psychological testing.

Recommendations (Reflective of THR5)
It is accordingly recommended thus:

(1) That arrangements be made with all major firms in NCN to make special provisions for meeting senior professors’ demands for their products or services.

(2) That the typical institution of affiliation be required by law and policy to support research carried out by academic staff and encourage professional conference participation.

Conclusion
It is concluded that if the offered theoretical responses (THRs) are subjected to research-based validation within each less developed Commonwealth nation, the ACD problem will easily be solved on a global scale.