The rapid expansion of private universities in Uganda has resulted in a shortage of suitably qualified academics and competition for, and sharing of, the existing pool of academics, thereby jeopardizing quality. The situation necessitates that universities recruit and retain their high caliber academics for sustaining teaching, research, academic excellence and community engagement. This study assesses the perceived consequences of, and challenges to, academic retention. It also evaluates the extent to which human resource (HR) practices relate to academics� job satisfaction, how HR practices may be improved and the impact of HR practices on academic staff retention. A sample of 313 academics was drawn from six private Ugandan Universities using a proportionate stratified random sampling technique to ensure the representation of academics from each institution. Data was collected using a self-developed, pre-coded questionnaire whose psychometric properties were statistically assessed. The results reflect that the most positively perceived impact of academic staff retention is improving academic performance, the greatest challenge for retention is inadequate resources to effect HR practices, the most effective strategy for improving HR practices is support from top management and, currently the strongest contributor to their level of job satisfaction is recruitment and selection. Finally, recruitment and selection, compensation and performance appraisal have the greatest potential to impact on academics� retention. Based on these results, recommendations are presented with the aim of enhancing academic staff retention.

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