FUNDING TERTIARY EDUCATION
It’s time to find alternative sources of funding university education
While inadequate funding has been a major problem of the education sector, policymakers have not demonstrated the will to devise a way to address the challenge. The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke revealed recently that the union turned down federal government’s plan to hike tuition fees in the universities. Osodeke said government confided in the union of plans to open an education bank and give each student a loan of N1 million annually at five per cent interest rate to sponsor themselves. The students would be required to pay back when they graduate and are gainfully employed. But ASUU rejected the plan because it did not want to be accused of fighting only for their personal interest.
The issue of a hike in tuition fees in public universities in Nigeria is a sensitive subject. But ASUU, and indeed many stakeholders in the sector, must move with the time. We must find better ways of fixing the university system broken finance in Nigeria. This is essential to resolving their perpetual financial crisis and ensuring that our graduates compete globally in the knowledge world. And one best way of resolving the problem is through substantial increase in tuition fees.
At present, students in federal tertiary institutions and most states’ public universities pay next to nothing. The institutions depend on the most part on government subventions which are also dwindling in the face of chronic economic crisis in addition to increased students and staff enrolment. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) established as an intervention agency, cannot also be said to have done well – as its interventions would seem not to have touched on things that are central to the core mission of the university system.
Indeed, a panel on challenges of public universities (otherwise called the Needs Assessment Panel) by the National Universities Commission (NUC) implied in their report sometimes ago that poor funding was a major problem in the universities. Most of the institutions provide less than optimal circumstances for creditably discharging their basic functions of teaching and research. They are no good libraries, decent research laboratories, conducive environment, attractive pay, and modern technological gadgets which facilitate teaching and learning. The increase in the number of schools, as well as the slide in funding, also adversely affected the quality of academic staff.
Unfortunately, things are far worse today. It is an open secret that today, Nigerian universities produce graduates that can neither meet the demands of local employers nor compete in the global labour market. The result is the increasing army of unemployed and unemployable youths roaming the streets of major cities. For a country in hurry to develop, and in dire need of top scientists and engineers to catch up with today’s knowledge economy, Nigeria is too far behind in education.
As a way of addressing the problems, we believe it is time alternative sources of funding were devised. Government could help spread the risks around. There could be financial assistance for poor but bright students in form of scholarships and bursaries, but the issue of tuition must be addressed immediately. Government, according to ASUU, has agreed to offer loans on a more generous terms than banks. Income-based loan repayments make sense, even if the amount proposed by the government can be slashed to a more comfortable figure. The students will also be conscious of what they are studying.
We need the right policies that would provide alternative sources of funding, attract quality academic and non-academic staff, provide necessary teaching aids, and ensure conducive learning environment for students. The best universities in the world attract the best academics and supply global employment market. But someone must bear the cost.
