Factors influencing academic staff retention in Tanzania: a case of selected public higher learning institutions

The purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing the retention of academic staff a case of selected public higher learning institutions in Tanzania. The research focused on perceptions of academic staff with the prevailing salaries package and incentives packages on their work retention, reasons for academic staff remaining in the public higher learning institutions. The effort’s made by the management that lead to retention of academic staff in the public higher learning institutions. Both desk and field research method were used which were both descriptive and analytical. There were 115 respondents. Logical statements and Chi square test were used in the analysis of data. The findings revealed that: 91% of academic staff were satisfied with their employment in the public higher learning institutions due to both financial and non-financial factors. On the other hand9% of academic staff were not satisfied with their employment in the public higher learning institutions due to non-financial factors. From the findings it was concluded that: the majority of academic staff remain in the public high learning institution are satisfied with their employment. This showed that rate of retention was higher ranged from 95.4% to 98.4%. On the basis of the above findings and conclusions, it was recommended that: the government should take official steps to raise the status of the teaching profession economically, socially and politically. Furthermore, application of motivation theories should reflect context of the country in question.