RESEARCH BEHAVIOR IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSITIES AND POLYTECHNICS STUDENTS IN THE SOUTH-EAST OF NIGERIA

Research in Nigerias institutions of higher learning, including the universities and polytechnics, has consistently proved to be below expectation given the importance of research to the growth and development of the country. Although, the constraints impeding the realization of research goals in the higher education ecosystem have mainly been captured in the literature. However, there is a growing concern about the research behavior of scholars in higher education in Nigeria. Thus, the primary purpose of the current study is to compare research behavior between the university and polytechnic lecturers in southeast Nigeria. Ninety-six academic staff pooled from public tertiary institutions in the Enugu and Ebonyi States of Nigeria completed a self-report measure. The mean, standard deviation score, and t-test result revealed a statistically significant difference between the university and polytechnic scholars on research behavior. Thus, the result indicated that university lecturers have more positive research behavior than their polytechnic counterparts.