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Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy (BJSEP), Volume 13, Number 1, 2019
FUNDING UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN
NIGERIA: THE CHALLENGES AND WAY
FORWARD
Omobola O. GAMBO, Success A. FASANMI
Obafemi Awolowo University, NIGERIA
Abstract. Most of the challenges facing Nigerian universities are
traceable to inadequate funding. The sector often blames the government for
inadequate funding of public universities while the government complains of
scarce resources. The incessant closure of universities as a result of unresolved
issues between labour/student unions and management, as well as the
government is usually as a result of funding such as unpaid outstanding
allowances and dilapidated facilities among others. This paper explored other
alternatives to funding university education in Nigeria as the beneficiaries of
university education were identified because every rational individual will
contribute to a project because of the benefit they will get from it. The paper
recommended that all beneficiaries of university education should be informed
through approprite medium to contribute their quotas to the funding process.
Managements of universities are also challenged to judiciously use available
resources.
Keywords: funding, university education, universities, beneficiaries
Introduction
The smooth running of any educational institution depends largely on
the availability of resources, be it human, material or financial. These
resources also determine to a large extent the achievement of the set goals of
any organisation. Ozigi & Canham (1979) opined that no organization can
carry out its functions effectively without adequate financial resources at its
disposal. Funding which represents financial resources plays a vital role in the
development of universities. Therefore, the funding of education is a vital area
of Economics of Education (Akangbou, 1986).
The history of University Education funding in Nigeria dated back to
the period of establishment of tertiary institutions. This dates back to 1948
when the University College Ibadan (UCI) was established following the Elliot
Commission’s recommendation in Nigeria. The Elliot Commission was set up
in the year 1943 “to report on the organisation and facilities of the existing
centres of higher education in British West Africa, and to make
recommendations regarding future university development in that area”
(Fafunwa, 1971). At creation, UCI operated as a college affiliated to
University of London, it was however accorded university status in 1962 and
named as University of Ibadan (UI). Ukeje (2002) noted that UCI was funded
from two main sources. The Nigerian government provided 70 per cent of the
funds while the United Kingdom provided 30 per cent of the total recurrent
cost.1) Since then and up till now, there is low level of University education
funding and it is often an issue among stakeholders with its effects on quality
of university education in Nigeria. The World Bank in 2010, cited in
Famurewa (2014) reveals that the problem of higher education financing,
especially University education is more serious in Africa than the rest of the
world. In Nigeria for instance, apart from global economic recession which is
ravaging the economy, other factors like huge foreign and domestic debts,
declining revenue from non-oil sectors due to neglect, declining revenue from
the oil sector which the government highly depend upon, huge budget that
government earmarked for debt servicing on yearly basis, mismanagement of
economic resources, high rate of corruption in all sphere of the economy etc.
had made it difficult for the government to generate adequate resources to fund
the public tertiary institutions in the country.
Most of the recently recorded crisis in Nigerian Universities are
traceable to funding issues. Many universities have been under lock and keys,
at one time or the other because of agitations on issues bordering on money.
While some were shut down on account of non-payment of allowance of
workers, some others are as a result of issues concerning poor welfare services
of students. The problem of insufficient buildings, under-equiped labouratories
and facilities in Nigerian universities can be traced to inadequate funding.
Most student riots in the university and even most of the crisis between
university unions and federal government of Nigeria can be traced to monetary
issues which revolve around inadequate funding of their institutions.
Overview of funding of University education in Nigeria
In recent times, the allocation of fund to federal universities by the
federal government has not been palatable to other university stake holders.
University education sector often blame the government for inadequate
funding of university education in Nigeria while the government in turn
blames the sector of inefficient utilization of resources allocated to them. Also,
the government complain of scarce resources, especially in this period of
recession.
Table 1 shows the share of education on the National Budgets from
2009 to 2018. From the table, the highest percentage share of the National
Budget to education since 2009 till date is 9.94 which is even lower than the
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
minimum standard of 26%. This is a pointer that we need to explore other
alternatives if our universities must be adequately funded.
Table 1. Share of education on the national budgets 2009-2018
Year
Total National Budget
Allocation to
Education
% Share to
Education sector
2009
3,049,000,000,000
221,019,000,000
7.25
2010
5,160,000,000,000
249,090,000,000
4.83
2011
4,972,000,000,000
306,030,000,000
6.16
2012
4,877,000,000,000
400,015,000,000
8.20
2013
4,987,000,000,000
426,053,000,000
8.55
2014
4,962,000,000,000
493,000,000,000
9.94
2015
5,068,000,000,000
392,200,000,000
7.74
2016
6,061,000,000,000
369,600,000,000
6.10
2017
7,444,000,000,000
550,000,000,000
7.38
2018
8,612,000,000,000
605,800,000,000
7.03
Challenges of funding University education in Nigeria
One major challenge of funding university education is the question of
who should finance or fund it? There has been a lot of debate about cost of
education especially on who should bear the cost. Many individuals and
corporate bodies in Nigeria have the opinion that university education should
be financed by the government while the government on the other hand,
complain of scarce resources. University system, students and parents often
rely on the government for funding Nigerian universities, forgetting the fact
that not only the government benefit from university education in Nigeria.
The way and manner the available funds are utilized is also an issue of
concern in Nigerian universities. It is no longer news that the economic
recession in the country has greatly affected government’s monetary support
for universities. It is however worrisome that the available funds in
universities are not judiciously used for the purpose for which it is meant.
Corruption which has become the order of the day in the Nigerian polity is
also becoming prominent in universities. The Provost of Anti-Corruption
Academy of Nigeria, Professor Sola Akinrinade on an online platform
(pulse.ng) on 7th July 2015 expressed fear on the increasing level of corruption
in Nigerian universities when he said the high incidence of corruption in the
university system threatens Nigeria's future. In essence, universities are facing
the problem of funding not only because of the hard times the economy of the
nation is undergoing but because the available funds are actually not
judiciously utilized by the management of universities. One of the Federal
universities in south west Nigeria was shut down for over two months in 2016
and the members of staff in the university alleged the management of
mismanagement of funds which was meant to pay backlog of certain
allowances.
The Way forward
Every rational individual embarks on a project because of the benefit
they will derive from it, therefore the question of who should fund university
education in Nigeria can be answered by indentifying who benefits from
university education in the country. Identifying the beneficiaries of university
education will lead us to how to fund university education in Nigeria because
the benefit an individual or group will gain from a project can motivate them
into putting their resources into it. Some of these beneficiaries include:
Students of university education
The attendance at a university has a significant impact on an
individual’s lifetime earnings. University students pursue university degrees
mostly because of the private benefit (benefits that accrue solely to the
individual) they will derive from it. Adelokun et al. (2010) identified
Wesbroid’s Seven-Point-Analysis of Benefits of Education as Direct financial
returns, Financial option, Hedging option, Non-market option, Residence-
related beneficiaries, Employment -related beneficiaries and Societal benefits.
They revealed that the first beneficiaries of higher education are the higher
education graduates. Students of university education benefit from being
trained in the university after graduating. University education helps in
moulding an individual thereby making it possible for such an individual to be
useful to himself in terms of earning money that would serve as avenue for
making life comfortable. University education can lead to an increase in the
future level of income or output of the educated individuals through improved
productivity of labour. Alan B. Krueger, an economics professor at Princeton,
says that, up to a point, an additional year of schooling is likely to raise an
individual's earnings about 10 percent. It can also lead to psychological
satisfaction (non-monetary) in the graduates and it can bring “spill-over” or
“neighborhood” benefits as identified by Adelokun (1997) on the rest of the
members of the community in which the graduates live. In the same vein,
education has indirect effects on health, fertility and life expectancy of
university graduates.
Since students benefit from their university education in the long run,
they should be actively and willingly (not grudginly) involved in the funding
of university education through the payment of school fees if they want to
receive the best education. Students should be encouraged to secure paid jobs
while in school during long vacations and be involved in businesses that will
not distract them from their academics in order to have an input in the payment
of their fees.
Parents / Guardian
Parents / Guardian benefit from the university education of their
children/ wards. Parents benefit from resident- related benefit as identified by
Adelokun et al. (2010) in Wesbroid’s Seven-Point-Analysis of Benefits of
Education. In Nigeria, most parents have the mentality that their children must
take care of them after graduating from the University, so they should be
willingly involved in funding university education through the payment of
their wards school fees and through donations if our universities must be
adequately funded. Many political parties in Nigeria promise free education to
its citizens, they do this at the detriment of good education, and because they
can not solely fund the educational system, schools authomatically, become
under- funded and poor education becomes the order of the day. Adaralegbe
(1990) also questioned free education in a depressed economy like Nigeria
while Adesina (1990) elaborated that in countries where education is free,
there is a programme of raising funds directly or indirectly within the system
to finance the educational system.
Therefore, to have good education, schools must be well funded and
for schools to be well funded, parents must see the funding of schools as a
joint responsibility.
The University system
The University has a lot to gain from the education she offers to
students. Some alumnus return to the universities where they graduated from
to donate some equipment, build lecture halls, halls of residence and so on, so
universities must be involved in funding or financing their universities. They
can achieve this through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) within the
University community. Apart from the school fees collected from students,
universities in Nigeria can generate income internally through transportation
businesses within the community, they can set up a bakery to produce bread,
manufacture water, set up large scale farming to feed the community, they can
also set up primary and secondary schools, have tutorial centres, they can also
run consultancy services as an arm of their investment company etc. All these
have the ability to generate income to the university community so that they
can also be involved in funding the system. However, caution must be taken to
ensure that the quest to generate internally generated revenue should not
conflict with the pursuit of its three cardinal goals of teaching, research and
community service. It is only when the university system is adequately funded
that good education can be imparted and when good education is imparted, the
students will be willing to give back to their universities in the future.
Organisations within and outside the country
Organisations benefit from university education in Nigeria and even
outside the country. This can be classified under the Employment –related
beneficiaries. Graduates put into practice all they learnt from the university in
organisations that recruit them thereby benefiting from their university
education. Therefore organisations in and outside Nigeria who recruit Nigerian
graduates should be involved in funding university education in Nigeria
through donations and by giving of grants and endowment funds. (Adeyemi,
2011) recommended that since the educational system needs to be financed,
the private and public sector assistance or contribution should be more
encouraged. Some of the organisations that have been funding Nigerian
universities include: Commonwealth Grant Scheme (CGS); Higher Education
Loan Program (HELP); Commonwealth Scholarships; Disability Support
Program (DSP); Indigenous Support Program; Structural Adjustment Fund;
Higher Education Participation and Partnership Program (HEPPP); Promotion
of Excellence in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education; Superannuation
Program; Australian Maths and Science Partnerships Program (AMSPP).
Individuals / citizens in the country
Individuals in the community benefit from university education of
university graduates living in the community. Graduates use some skills and
knowledge that has been acquired in the university for the benefit of those
living around them. For example, a doctor trained and practising in Nigeria
treats people who come to the hospital, his neighbours and family members
based on the training he received from the university. Lawyers advocate for
companies and individuals in the country, Pharmacists prescribe drug to
citizens, engineers help citizens, companies and the government to build,
university trained teachers give good education to pupils and students in the
country, educational planners help in planning the educational system, etc.
Therefore, individuals should be involved in financing university
education because they benefit from university education in the country. In
some developed countries, individuals/ citizens get involved in the financing
of university education. For example, in Britain, a citizen named Mr.
Robinson, at his death in 1970, gave all his life savings of £20m to the
University of Cambridge. That was the same reason why the Robinson
College, was named after him in Cambridge. Some Colleges were even
established in Cambridge by philanthropists, some of them include, Pembroke
College (founded in 1347 by the Countess of Pembroke), Gonville and Caius
College (1348, by Edmond Gonville Dr Caius) and Downing College (1807,
by Sir George Downing).
The Government
University education has always and will continue to be a pivot of
national development. Education is not just a private good, it is a public good
because it confers some benefits on the country which includes tax among
others. The government benefits from the education of its citizens directly and
indirectly, it benefits directly from the payment of tax by working educated
citizens and indirectly by the tax they pay on goods and services in the
country. It helps to sustain and accelerate overall development. The stock of
highly-educated individuals produced by higher education institutions plays an
important role in the innovation and the sustainable development of any
society (Akinyemi, 2012). Also, Johnstone (2006) opines that higher education
is an agent of change and national growth. No country can grow beyond the
gowth of its university education.
The Federal government of Nigeria should play her role in allocating
minimum 26% of its national budget to education as adviced by UNESCO,
thereby increasing the amount that will be allocated to university education if
our universities must be adequately funded.
Conclusion
Since education is both a private and public good and all the benefits of
university education does not go to the government alone, all the other
beneficiaries of university education as identified in this work should be given
proper orientation on the benefits of university education and how it affects
them so they can be encouraged to be a part of funding of universities in
Nigeria.
The Management of universities should also be judicious in the use of
available resources as other beneficiaries join efforts together in the funding of
university education in the country because if there is no effective and efficient
utilisation of resources, the university system will still be under-funded even if
all the beneficiaries are involved in the funding process.
There is also need for government to provide an enabling environment
for private individuals to be part of the provision of university education.
Government should not place too much burden on private universities in terms
of the cost of registration as well as taxes. By so doing, the private universities
will be able to complement the government-owned universities in the
provision of university education in the country.
NOTES
1. https://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-development-
education-business-and-management-architecture-and-building-
construction-agriculture-and-food-security/alternative-perspective-to-
funding-public-universities-in-nigeria
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Omobola Oyinlade GAMBO
Department of Educational Management,
Faculty of Education,
Obafemi Awolowo University,
