The Vice President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Dr. Abdussobur Olayiwola Salaam, has dismissed claims that Nigerian universities are overstaffed with non-academic personnel, insisting that such views are based on ignorance and mischief.
Dr. Salaam, a university administrator, said it is a global practice for non-teaching staff to outnumber their academic counterparts, citing data from universities in the United Kingdom and the United States.
He explained that universities cannot function without the wide-ranging professional services of non-teaching staff who play critical roles beyond clerical duties. These include medical services, finance, administration, transportation, engineering, environmental management, security, and media relations.
“There are many misconceptions about non-teaching staff, most of which arise from ignorance and deliberate misinformation. When people try to push the narrative that non-teaching personnel can be dispensed with, they ignore the fact that universities rely heavily on their professional expertise,” he stated.
According to him, even in Ivy League institutions in the US and top universities in the UK, non-teaching staff consistently outnumber lecturers.
“I carried out research between 2004 and 2012 across UK universities and discovered that academic staff made up only 45 to 48 percent of personnel, while non-teaching staff accounted for between 52 and 55 percent.
“A similar trend was observed in Ivy League schools such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Michigan,” Salaam explained.
He stressed that in Nigeria, the cost implications also counter the popular perception.
“The total salary overhead of non-teaching staff is not up to 50 percent of what is paid to academic staff.
“In fact, maintaining an average non-teaching staff member costs only about one-fifth of what it takes to sustain an academic staff. In most universities, academic staff take between 55 and 70 percent of personnel costs,” he said.
Backing his argument with local data, Salaam cited an analysis of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN); and the University of Ibadan (UI) during the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 academic sessions.
He revealed: “At ABU, 73 percent of staff strength were non-teaching, but their financial implication stood at just 48 percent of the personnel budget.
Similarly, across the three institutions, budgetary allocation for academic staff ranged between 54 and 62 percent, while non-teaching staff accounted for between 38 and 46 percent. The documents are there; people should not engage in mischief.”
Dr. Salaam therefore urged Nigerians to discard what he described as “baseless narratives” against non-teaching staff, stressing that they remain indispensable to the effective running of universities.
'
'Do you want to share a story with us? Do you want to advertise with us? Do you need publicity for a product, service, or event? Contact us on WhatsApp +2348183319097 Email: platformtimes@gmail.com
We are committed to impactful investigative journalism for human interest and social justice. Your donation will help us tell more stories. Kindly donate any amount HERE
