Regression Analysis Based Effective Manpower Planning Methodology: A Case Study

Adequate staff-students ratio (SSR) is one of the important National Universities Commission (NUC) prescribed criteria to be implemented in manpower planning by Universities in Nigeria. Forecasting manpower requirement has been used for economic planners and even the academic sector. In other to avoid imbalance, the manpower requirement is very vital in determining the desired output in a system. This study is aimed at predicting the adequate manpower required in a unit of an academic institution. Manpower related data of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University of Technology, Akure Nigeria were collected. The data collected includes manpower capacity and students population over a period of thirteen consecutive years. The regression analysis based model was formulated and applied to analyze the collected data. Based on the analyzed data, trends of , , and are obtained respectively for the student's population size, lecturers and technical staff requirements, where and X are economic indicators. The obtained trends equations were then subsequently applied to compute SSRs and recommendations were made. The developed model was implemented in a computer software, using the Visual Basic programming language, in order to facilitate its solution procedure. The outcome of this study will aid the management of the institution in effective manpower determination and students number projection in future years. This will also assist the institution to plan for effective SSR based on the recommendation of NUC.