PLANNING MANPOWER FOR EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

Effective administration of public universities in Nigeria in general, remains largely dependent on the adequacy, quality, and strategic deployment of manpower. It is the argument of this paper that persistent administrative inefficiencies in public universities are fundamentally linked to weak and uncoordinated manpower planning practices. The paper takes the position that systematic, data-driven, and policy-aligned manpower planning is indispensable for improving administrative effectiveness, institutional stability, and goal attainment in public universities. Anchored on the Human Capital Theory, key discussions focused on how manpower planning improves administrative effectiveness of public universities and manpower planning practices for effective university administration. The explored practices include workforce analysis, recruitment and selection, training and development planning, succession planning and staff performance appraisal. Barriers to effective manpower planning were also highlighted together with strategies for mitigating them. The paper concluded that without deliberate and continuous manpower planning, administrative reforms in public universities will remain unsustainable. The paper went on to suggest among others that the management of public universities in Rivers State should establish robust human resource information systems to accurately track staff skills, qualifications, and career progression for effective manpower forecasting.