Tertiary institutions in Uganda are facing increasing competition for the same pool of academics and as a result are prioritizing the retention of academics. This study assesses academics perceptions of the role of human resources practices (HR planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, performance appraisal and industrial relations) in the retention of academic staff in private Ugandan Universities. A sample of 313 academics was drawn from six private Ugandan Universities using a proportionate stratified random sampling technique to ensure representation from each institution. Data was collected using a self-developed, pre-coded questionnaire whose psychometric properties were statistically assessed. The results reflect that recruitment and selection was adopted the most, training and development was perceived by academics as having the greatest impact on academic staff retention, management was perceived as being most concerned about recruitment and selection and least concerned about compensation and, recruitment and selection was perceived as being the most effectively implemented HR practice in attempts to enhance retention. Significant intercorrelations also exist among the HR practices studied. The study also presented recommendations for effectively implementing the HR practices in enhancing the retention of academics.

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