Profiling State University Researchers: Foundations for Policy Recommendations

Abstract

The contemporary higher education landscape has emphasized that research productivity contributes toward institutional beneficence and achieving sustainable development goals. Actuating this requires faculty members’ involvement in research activities, hence, profiling their views is warranted and timely. This study aimed to profile Filipino state university researchers focused on their research attitude, motivation, anxiety, and challenges. Anchored to this goal, 54 respondents were purposively sampled to answer an online questionnaire measuring these parameters. Results underscored that respondents exhibit a prominently positive standpoint of doing research vis-à-vis university performance, research incentives, personal interest in conducting research, teaching duties, and professional growth. A personal sense of fulfillment motivates them while they are anxious to improve their research skills and are challenged by limited funding for their studies. Regression analysis indicated that sex, age, years of teaching in college, educational attainment, faculty rank, scholarship, grant funding, personal interests, commitment to the mission of the university, perceived research use, motivation, anxiety, and encountered challenges do not predict publication rates of faculty members. Meanwhile, their research orientation and perception of rewards influencing research positively predict their publication rates. Qualitative results further illuminated these findings showing that they are motivated by support, recognition, intrinsic satisfaction, and the societal impact of research. They recognized institutional challenges, limited resources, and workload burdens as hindrances in conducting research. To reinforce a research culture, they recommend enhancing institutional support, establishing a collaborative research environment, streamlining policies, and reducing workload constraints. Grounded on these results, actionable policy recommendations were formulated in the study to support state university researchers.