With ex post facto research method, this study investigated the attitude of lecturers towards the adoption of Information and Communication Technology, abbreviated as ICT, in teaching and research in federal and state-owned universities in Nigeria. Four research questions and null hypotheses were respectively, answered and tested. A stratified sample of 400 lecturers (251 males and 149 females) was randomly drawn from one federal university and one state university. A factor analyzed 55 items instrument with high construct validity and three-factor loadings was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument, using the Cronbach alpha method, showed reliability coefficients of 0.67, 0.62, and 0.51 for attitude, competence, and accessibility factor loadings, respectively. Data analysis was done with the use of independent samples t-test and One-way ANOVA for testing the hypotheses. Results revealed that gender and area of specialization have no significant difference in the attitude of lecturers’ towards ICT adoption in teaching and research. On years of experience, moderately and less experienced lecturers are more competent in the use of ICTs than their highly experienced counterparts. ICT facilities are significantly more accessible the Federal university (University of Port Harcourt) than the State university (Rivers State University of Science and Technology). University management should motivate and encourage lecturers to participate in ICT training programs, lecturers especially highly experienced should be well motivated to develop their ICT competence.
Keywords: Area of specialization, Federal Universities, Gender, ICT, ICT competence, Information and Communication Technology, Lecturers, State universities, Years of experience, and ICT access; Adoption of ICT, attitude
