Mediating role of enrolment strategies on academic staff retention and enrolment performance of private Universities in Ghana

Abstract

Globally, there is fierce competition among students and academic staff of both private and public universities; therefore, some private universities have adopted survival strategies to share in the higher education market. This study investigates enrolment strategies that mediate the relationship between academic staff retention and enrolment performance in three chartered private universities in Ghana. Also, it investigates the challenges that confront these chartered private universities and the switching intentions of the academic staff. Random sampling and purposive techniques are used to select the sample size of 287, representing 63% of the academic staff from the selected institutions. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using the sequential mixed-methods approach. Linear Structural Relation - Structural Equation Model (LISREL-SEM) was used to test hypotheses about the mediating variables. Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank the challenges, and Binary Logit (BL) was employed to analyse academic staff switching intentions. The qualitative data were analysed using a thematic approach to derive the content of responses. Findings of the study reveal that collaboration and innovation mediate the relationship between staff retention strategy and enrolment performance. The findings also suggest that pricing (tuition fee) might not affects students‘ enrolment. Management should, therefore, support innovative admission activities to improve enrolment performance. Also, leadership style and remuneration are predictors most likely to influence staff switching intentions. Therefore, management of institutions selected for the study need to collaborate with their academic staff and invest in research to determine the niche areas of their institutions for better linkages and collaboration with other universities to mitigate the effects of fierce competition for students.