The study investigated Managing Brain Drain for Students Academic Performance in Nigerian Universities: A Case Study of Rivers State. Three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses guided the study. A sample size of 348 academic staff was drawn from the three universities in Rivers State, using stratified sampling technique. A structured 12-item instrument titled managing brain drain for students’ academic performance questionnaire (MBDSAPQ) was used for data collection. The test re-test method was used to obtain reliability of the instrument. The reliability index was established at 0.73. The mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions and Z-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that the causes of brain drain in Nigerian universities are economic incentives, motivation, funding. Brain drain causes loss of talented lecturers, reduction of the standard of education and the ways of managing brain drain are better salaries, collaboration with international universities for knowledge exchange. The study inter alia recommended that government should ensure that lecturers are well paid, provide grants to lecturers for quality research and partner with private sectors.