APPLIED RESEARCH: A TOOL FOR STRENGTHENING AND NURTURING RESEARCH CULTURE AMONG ACADEMICS

Research is the intellectual lifeblood of every institution of higher learning. This study was triggered by an acute shortfall in research output in one of the selected regions of the Zimbabwe Open University. The study sought to establish factors that hinder academics from undertaking research with a view to stimulating productive research. An exploratory qualitative applied research methodology was used in order to establish factors that militated against active research at the chosen region. Seventeen academics expertly sampled participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain participants’ experiences, feelings perceptions and attitudes towards research. Thematic content analysis was used to interpret the coded interview notes. The research found that most academics in the region were not research active due to: lack of research competency, weak research culture and lack of consistency in monitoring research activities. The study concluded that the key underlying factor responsible for inadequate research outputs was lack of research competence. Consequently, the study recommended that it is important to build research capacity to enable academics in the region to become more research active.