Higher Education in Nigeria and the Emergence of Private Universities
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This paper is an exploratory study that focuses on the problems facing higher education in Nigeria
and the emergence of private universities. The Nigerian educational system is today bedeviled by
series of challenges such as issues of inadequate funding, inconsistent policies and lack of
continuity of programmes which are more pronounced in Public Universities (both Federal and
State owned). Other issues include infrastructural decay and the disruption of the higher education
system and academic calendars due to strikes and riots. Insufficient budgetary allocation, obsolete
equipment, old and outdated curricula and text books, lack of research grants, poor remuneration
and general welfare for lecturers including the heightened level of brain drain. The current discourse
on this issue is in line with the incessant complaints by employers of labour that most Nigerian
graduates are half baked needing a lot of training in the world of work. Private universities such as
Covenant University emerged to salvage the situation bearing in mind the fact that education
remains the engine that drives the growth and development of a nation. The emphasis here is on the
emergence of private universities in Nigeria, how well they have fared, current challenges and
prospects for future development.
Keywords
HM Sociology