Prevalence of Burnout among University Academic Staff in Uganda; Does Gender Matter?

Abstract

More than half the educators in high-income countries suffer from burnout, which has detrimental effects for lecturers’ wellbeing, to the effectiveness of institutions of learning and students ’ care outcomes. In Uganda, although suspected due to high reported levels of lecturer absenteeism and turnover, there is limited evidence of burnout among university academic staff. There is now sufficient evidence that university academic staff are strained by competitiveness, job insecurity and the accelerated work demands of academic jobs, including tenure-related demands, research and publication pressures, teaching loads, few opportunities for promotion and excessive paperwork which may lead to burnout. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of burnout in a national sample of lecturers in Uganda using used a descriptive cross-sectional research design. A sample of 358 respondents was randomly selected from the population of university academic staff. Data was collected using the Professional Quality of Life version 5. Descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-test were used in data analysis. All statistics were tested at .05 significant levels. Results showed that more than half (58%) of the academic staff had moderate levels of burnout while 38% of them had high f levels of burnout. It was recommended that Employee Assistance Program be established in universities in Uganda. Also to relieve pressures that could lead to burnout, training in emotional-social competencies is recommended