Financing Public Tertiary Education in Nigeria Problems, Challenges and the Way Forward

Abstract

This study examines the pragmatic approaches to financing public tertiary education in Nigeria by exploring the problems, challenges and the way forward. In doing that, exploratory study was employed as the research design for the study. Indeed, data were collected from the secondary sources through (the internet/Online materials, Budget Office of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Education, National Bureau of Statistics and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)]. Content analysis was employed as the techniques for data analysis in the study. Based on the findings, it was revealed that continuous decline in budgetary allocation, accumulated external debt servicing, unlimited passage of bills for the establishment of public tertiary educational institutions, poor Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by the public tertiary educational institutions, revenue smoothing by the tertiary educational administrators were amongst others, the nagging problems obstructing the financing of public tertiary education in Nigeria. It was also found that foreign capital flight from education, incessant strikes, outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, constant global economic instability/recessions are some of the challenges inherent in financing public tertiary education in Nigeria. Therefore, it is necessary and desirable for all relevant stakeholders at all levels to embark on collaborative efforts designed at providing a road map for curbing the problems and challenges hindering the funding of public tertiary education in Nigeria. The findings of this study underlines the urgent need for the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to come up with blue-print that will ensure compliance with the local and global best standard of practice vis-à-vis funding of public tertiary education in Nigeria as stipulated by the UNESCO.