PROFESSORIAL DEARTH AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG FACULTY: THE STRUGGLE FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Abstract

Professors, often serving as departmental and faculty chairpersons or chief executives of most universities, play very important roles in the policy formulation and implementation processes of universities. Professors are at the center of the major purposes for which universities exist. Although they are generally seen as stinky in their criticisms of issues at meetings, the dearth of professors on the staff-list of any university usually also sends signals that the best in academia are not on board to direct critical thinking, knowledge creation and dissemination in such institutions. This study examines the role of professors in the core businesses of universities; especially in shaping the lives of younger faculty and students under their guidance. As teachers, mentors and researchers, professors are central to the creation of any reputation to which a university is identified. Their expertise in matching curricula with national aspirations through reviewing, expanding or dropping courses not serving national interests makes them very important in building reputations. The paper concludes that those who preside at the departmental and faculty levels lose or win the reputations that go with many universities.