The Challenge of Support Staff in Public Universities Nigeria

Abstract

Public universities are institutions of higher learning that are funded and operated by the government. These universities are usually established to provide affordable and accessible education to the public. The operations of these institutions involve an intricate interconnection of diverse factors, and each component plays a crucial role in determining its overall success and efficiency. The paper examines “the challenge(s) of support staff” whose operational dynamics involves a strong support system, the custodian of university records, safeguarding and maintaining the fundamental elements of the public university system, faced myriads of challenges, which includes heavy workloads, limitations in resources, technological hurdles, and administrative obstacles which hinders their performances and subsequently, the overall effectiveness of academic institutions. Using content analysis, the paper relies on secondary materials to present this data. It is discovered that, despite their critical role in safeguarding the sanctity of records, and providing support services, these categories of staff were most often relegated and seen as second rate instead as complementary. To enhance the performances and remedy the challenge being faced by support staff in public universities in Nigeria, it is recommended that there should be continuous training and retraining, eliminates the feud being experienced against the support staff to encourage mutual working relationship in streamlining administrative processes for efficiency and effectiveness.