This article aims to explore whether the relationship between academic staff turnover intention and organizational commitment is influenced by organizational commitment dimensions. The study employed a cross-sectional research approach to analyze quantitative data at an individual level. Information on the research variables was gathered from 878 academic staff members at 8 Ugandan universities via a survey questionnaire. SPSS version 25 was employed in the analysis to evaluate the suggested model. The results of empirical research show that the intention to depart is significantly and negatively impacted by organizational commitment. It is notable that both the affective and normative commitment dimensions exhibit a significant decrease in turnover intention. The findings also support the idea that there is no statistical relationship between the intention to leave voluntarily and continuously. Previous research on the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention has concentrated on how organizational commitment affects turnover intention across various domains. The individual contribution of organizational commitment dimensions in predicting turnover intention in the education domain has been scarce. Our study aims to close the gap by illuminating the predictive role of affective, normative, and continuance commitment as a measure of staff retention in higher education institutions in emerging economy.