Human resource management practices for quality education delivery in universities in south east nigeria

Human resource management is fundamental to quality education delivery in universities. This is due to the fact that for a university to deliver quality education, its human resources must be effectively and efficiently managed. However, there have been claims that universities are not delivering quality education as a result of the ways in which they manage their human resources for quality education delivery which were not yet known. The general purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the human resource management practices for quality education delivery in universities in South East Nigeria. Seven research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 831 subjects. This figure was made up of 677 heads of units that include 115 Deans, 501 Heads of Departments and 61 Directors; and also 154 Senior Administrative Staff who are at the rank of Senior Assistant Registrar and above in the ten universities in South East Nigeria. The entire population was used for the study due to its manageable size. A 50-item questionnaire was the instrument developed by the researcher and used to collect the required data for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts and tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha method. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using means, standard deviations and t-test statistic. Some major findings of the study were that job vacancies are neither determined through staff audit nor widely advertised in the media, applicants for jobs are not duly invited for interview and the most qualified applicants are not selected to fill vacant positions in the university. Also, there is irregular in-service training programme for staff and seminars are not regularly organized for staff, among others.