How Much Do Professors Earn As Salary In Nigeria?

In this article we will be informing you how much do Professor earn as salary in Nigeria.

To begin with, today’s topic is a very sensitive topic for many as both public and private sector workers don’t like to reveal the amount they earn as salaries.

In fact, the issue of salary discussion is generally seen or termed as private.

Professor usually abbreviated as Prof. is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries.

A Professor is one who teaches a branch of knowledge.

They are usually specialists in their field and teachers of the highest rank.

Professors usually conduct original research and regularly teach undergraduate, professional, or postgraduate courses in their fields of expertise.

In universities with graduate schools, professors may mentor and supervise graduate students conducting research for a thesis or dissertation.

In many universities, full professors take on senior managerial roles such as leading departments, research teams, and institutes, and filling roles such as president, principal, or vice-chancellor.

Role Of A Professor

The role of a professor may be more public-facing than that of more junior staff, and professors are expected to be national or international leaders in their field of expertise.

In our country, Nigeria, and many other countries, you must graduate with at least a second class upper in order for you to apply for a lecturing job and some even require a first-class.

Becoming a professor in Nigeria is a tough one.

The procedures are quite lengthy but also quite interesting and take many years of dedicated research, determination, and devotion to achieve this.

Many try to get to this level of education in Nigeria because it earns them some sort of respect, adds flair to their CV/Resumé, and adds a few zeros to their salary.

But sadly, most people fail woefully due to various reasons.

I’m convinced you can’t wait for me to go straight to the point.

Of course, I would chill out, but first, let’s see how much normal lecturers are paid to enable us to compare and contrast the salaries for both the lecturers and professors.

One thing we should first take note of is the fact that lecturers’ salaries differ extremely based on experience, skills, gender, or location.

Lecturers Salaries In Nigeria

Lecturers’ salaries in Nigeria range from 245,000 Naira per month to 702,000 Naira per month.

But as stated earlier, everything depends heavily on the experience level.

It is the most important factor in determining the salary.

The more years of experience in lecturing you have, the higher your wage.

For instance;

A Lecturer with below two years of experience earns about 281,000 Naira monthly.

Someone with two to five years experience level is likely to earn about 345,000 Naira which is 23% more than that of someone with less than two years experience.

Those with an experience level of five to ten years bags a salary of 489,000 Naira which is about 42% more than someone with two to five years of experience.

Also, lecturer(s) who have been teaching for like ten to fifteen years get a salary of about N572,000 17% more than someone with five to ten years of experience.

Likewise, if the level of experienceis between fifteen and twenty years, then the income is N629,000 per month, 10% more than someone with ten to fifteen years of experience.

Then finally, employees with more than two decades of professional experience get a salary of N665,000 monthly, 6% more than people with fifteen to twenty years of experience.

See, it’s just like I said, the higher the experience, the higher the price.

Another thing that influences the price of Lecturers salaries is the level of education.

The price stated above is for lecturers who have attained their Master’s Degree, their salary is around 386,000 NGN per month.

Those with Ph.D gets a salary of 615,000 NGN per month, 59% more than someone having a Master’s Degree.

Another prerequisite is gender, male lecturers earn salaries 16% higher than females in some universities.

Professors Salaries in Nigeria

A professors’ salary is basically in the range of N4,580,349 to N6,020,163 on a yearly basis.

But this is just for the Federal/State universities because obviously, Private universities pay more but just like Lecturers, there are various criteria that determine the amount they earn; personal and academic qualifications, the university they work for, etc.

Funny enough, Professors also earn their money from their leave and this enables them to do some per-time/contract jobs with other institutions.

How to Become a Professor

Perhaps this article has inspired a few of you to want to be professors and now you’re wondering how you can achieve that.

Never fear, we’ve got you covered on that. Here are a few steps according to Scholarship positions to follow if you want to become a professor.

1. Choose a Field of Education

Aspiring college professors can select from a number of fields available, like; Mathematics, English, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Music, Dentistry, etc.

Remember that whichever field you choose must be out of passion and willpower to brave it out in the face of intense competition not peer influence.

2. Complete your Bachelor’s Degree

The next step is to register yourself into a Bachelor’s degree program at a University.

Acing your bachelor’s degree program is a requirement in most cases as future enrolment to a graduate school is based on the scores and GPA obtained in your bachelor’s course.

Apart from a good GPA, an analysis of how professors interact with students in the undergraduate community can help you get valuable insights into what is expected from you in the future.

3. Get admitted to a Graduate School

For most Universities, college professors need at least a master’s degree to be considered for an opportunity to teach at the University.

In many cases, a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree is also a necessity.

For getting admitted to a prestigious graduate school, there is stringent competition and few seats with a large number of applicants.

If you clear the bar of getting admitted to a school of your choice, you can expect to learn a lot about your chosen field.

A strong academic relationship with your professors will also help you co-author many papers in the field and get industry-wide exposure.

If you choose to pursue a doctoral degree, you can specialize in the discipline of your choice.

Alongside this, the publication of papers and thesis is of special importance for candidates who want to become College Professors.

Students with a record of a successful string of publications are more competitive when it comes to applying for teaching positions at universities and colleges.

One more consideration that can help you with your teaching career is learning how to teach online.

Many reputed universities are offering full-time courses to students online.

Showcasing your online teaching skills could be the differentiator when it comes to highlighting your versatile nature for a teaching application.

4. Participate in Teaching Assistantships or Internships

During your whole career, you must be ready to participate in any employment opportunities or assistantships with your professor.

This will help you gain experience and put your teaching career on a fast track.

Post-Doctoral experience is also a way to increase knowledge and publish papers for the next two to three years after your Ph.D.

A post-doctoral experience teaching subjects of your field will help a great deal when it comes to landing a full-time position at any University.

Professor Salaries and Growth Outlook

In relation to the data published by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, the median salary of a professor across all levels is around $76,000 a year.

The highest and lowest salaries vary to a large extent on the basis of seniority, experience, and your teaching field.

This is not to discredit any particular area of learning but it is simply a result of supply and demand for teaching professionals of that field and its commercial applications.

For example, a law professor might earn a median annual salary of $165,000 while an English professor with a certain level of experience typically makes around $88,000 a year.

When it comes to the growth outlook, the future of college professors is bright.

Given the increasing number of students all over the world opting for college education and the growing importance of education to secure well-paying jobs, the number of seats and a consequent number of professors is likely to shoot up significantly every year.

The US Bureau of labour statistics believes that growth between 2016 and 2026 for professors will be around 15%.

This is faster than the average of all other professions put together, which is phenomenal. Perhaps, this vindicates your decision to pursue a career in academia.

Given the rosy picture depicted above, growth in this profession will not be singular.

There will be certain fields where demand for professors will far outstrip the supply, leading to increased compensation levels.

For others, the demand and supply equilibrium will remain balanced, resulting in muted salary growth with limited opportunities.

Final Thought on Professors Salaries in Nigeria

If you wanna know the responsibilities of a University Professor here they are:

In addition to teaching courses in their respective areas of interest, college professors have a fiduciary duty to guide and mentor students in that field.

Professors need to synthesize a plan of action when it comes to lessons and curriculum, perform scheduling of assignments and syllabus, grading of work, and evaluation of every student across all courses.

Apart from the work of teaching, universities need professors to publish their original research in their area of expertise and be a part of academic committees formed to pursue the teaching agenda at the University.

A flexible schedule helps professors to conduct research in their area of expertise during summer while performing regular teaching duties during the academic year.

Other important qualities of a University professor include being open-minded, fair, cooperative and kind to students.

Respecting every student and their potential for excellence without any prejudice can go a long way to make a more effective and influential professor in any university.

We hope you were able to find what you were looking for and more in this article.

If you have any other opinion, please drop them in our comment section and share with your friends and family.

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