Factors Affecting Academicians’ Research Engagement in Woldia University

Abstract

Teaching, Research and community service are activities expected from current academicians in the university. Research engagement refers to both “engagement in research (i.e. by doing it) as well as engagement with research (i.e. by reading and using it)”. The involvement of academicians’ in research activities is very rare in Woldia University. This study is aimed at identifying factors that affect academicians’ research engagement using count regression models. To meet the objectives, Stratified sampling technique is used to select a sample of 275 academicians. Poisson, zero inflated Poisson and zero inflated negative binomial regression models were used for data analysis considering the number of research conducted as the response variable. The analysis revealed that ZIP model was a better fit to the data than the other count models. Descriptive statistics results show that 72.4% of the academicians didn’t conduct any research in their stay at Woldia University. The results of the ZIP regression model revealed that for a year increases in teaching experience the number of conducted researches are increased by 1.17%. Providing research based trainings for female academicians, creating forums for experience sharing, minimizing funding burecracy, and providing mentorship in research activities are some of the interventions that help to increase the engagement of academicians in research activities.