With better funding, strict disciplinary codes, end to endemic strikes
and academic competitiveness as well as releasing of marks and grades
which formerly belonged to 'God' to deserving students among a host of
others, Church owned universities are bettering the lot of students and
showing public universities the way to go.
By Leke Beecroft
The true wealth of a nation is measured by her ability to harness the
human resources of her citizens. Thus, Brainhive, a resource firm
invited Ben Carson to Nigeria on 23 Jan 2009, to lecture Nigeria
students. Ben Carson is a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon and
former American Presidential candidate. He is the first doctor to
perform a successful separation procedure on Siamese twins joined at the
back of the head. Carson has 5 professionships in different fields in
medicine and 33 honorary doctorate degrees. Ben Carson has been awarded
the highest American civilian award.
Except for the Obafemi
Awolowo University (OAU-humorously nicknamed 'Oba Awon University' in
yoruba, meaning 'King of the universities ),ILE-IFE, all other Nigerian
public universities who desired to attend the unique lecture declined
due to the financial implication. On 24 Jan 2009,Carson lectured about
5000 people in Babcock University and over 7000 students at Covenant
University (CU). Impressed by the CU environment, he charged the
students to “use this splendid university to get a first-class
education”. This is a story of the present trend of private universities
in Nigeria of which Church owned universities form the majority. The
strong emergence of Church owned universities is a growing trend in
Nigeria.
Private universities are universities, whose funding comes from tuition, investments and private donors.
Public universities however are those funded by public means through a national or sub-national government.
Private universities in Nigeria first evolved between 1979 and
1983.They were abolished in 1984 because they lacked concrete plans for
further development. They re-emerged in 1999 with the National
Universities Commission (NUC) charged with their regulation,
accreditation and monitoring.
AN EXAMINATION OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
After Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the government began to establish
universities to enable Nigerians take over from colonial expatriates.
However, by the 1990s, public universities began to degenerate due to
limited government funding. Some people problems were enlarged lecturer
to student’s ratio, over-crowded classes, poor teaching and research,
exam malpractice, cultism and incessant strike actions. These strikes
destabilized the learning process and led to low quality output from
lecturers as they strived to gain lost ground. Recently, Sa’ad Abubakar,
Director, School of Remedial Studies, University of Abuja blamed the
low standard in public universities on gross underfunding. He stated
that the lecturers in Nigerian universities were about the least paid in
Africa.Professor Abubakar said
“I hope parents will find time to
go to the University of Abuja to see the extent of decay of
instructional facilities and the total non-availability of some vital
ones. We have three laboratories for 16000 students. Go into the
laboratories and see what we have there….how can there be high standard
of education in Nigeria when we don’t even have the necessary
instruments to impact the required knowledge…we are not happy producing
students under the current terrible situation”
.
According to
Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie, President of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities in Nigeria, the conditions in public universities are so
bad that none of them could attract foreign academics. Private
universities are a significant improvement. They are made to conform to
accreditation standards in staffing, finance, infrastructures and
provision of facilities and services. Also, most of them adopt the
American type cost-saving collegiate system in place of conventional
faculties and departments. Hajiya Dukku, the former minister of state
for education said only 220,000 of the 1.3 million candidates in the
2009 matriculation examination were admitted due to limited spaces in
existing universities.
CARRYING CAPACITY OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES IN 2004
Serial(A) Number of Universities(B) Carrying Capacity(C) Current Enrolment(D)
A B C D
1 Public(48) 505,635 708,000
2 Private(8) 28,548 19,740
Source: NUC 2004
ENROLMENT IN MADONNA AND COVENANT UNIVERSITIES.
Serial- University- Year- Enrollment -Year Enrollment
A B C D E F
1 Madonna 1999 390 -2005 7000
2 Covenant 2002 853 -2009 7000
Private university tuition fees range from #370,000 to
#2,600.000($2,200-$15,300) annually. The Guardian, a Nigerian newspaper,
recently conducted a survey regarding parents view. It shows that 20
percent preferred public universities,70% preferred private universities
if cost was not an issue while 10% preferred their children school
abroad. Nigeria currently has 40 Federal universities, 43 state
universities, and 70 private universities. There are also about 45
christian universities out of the 70 private ones. Presently, about 150
university applications are in different stages of application or
awaiting approval. Among the 40 Federal universities are 6 which the
federal government of Nigeria approved on 15 November 2010 and resumed
in 2011 November with a total take off grant of $66 million.
THE GLOBAL TREND IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.
The national population and number of universities in some countries as follows:
SELECTED COUNTRIES WITH POPULATION AND UNIVERSITY DATA.
SERIAL- COUNTRIES- POPULATION- NUMBER OF UNIVS
1 Mexico 11 million 1,341
2 Argentina 39million 1,705
3 Spain 40 million 145
4 France 60 million 1,062
5 Japan 130 million 726
6 Nigeria 180 million 153
Japan has 11 universities in the world’s top 200 and is close in population to Nigeria so she can be used in comparison.
COMPARISON OF UNIVERSITY DATA OF JAPAN AND NIGERIA
SERIAL(A) COUNTRY(B) PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES(C) PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES(D)
A B C D
1 Japan 173 553
2 Nigeria 83 70
The differentiated functions offered by private universities are of an
advantage .In Nigeria, private universities have integrated Information
Technology (IT) professional certification and entrepreneurial skill
into curriculum .These skills are key requirements for job seekers.
Toyin Enikuoemehin,a software engineer at the IT center of Lagos state
,University(LASU),states:
“It is largely because of the need for
an IT education that even teachers in public universities send their
children to private universities.”
Jim Ovia, former Managing
Director, Zenith bank said that in a series of interviews conducted by
the bank in 2009, foreign and private university graduates out performed
public university graduates. The average cost of tuition fees, in Japan
is $13,603 or #4,810,000 per annum. To defray this cost, students work
part-time or borrow money through the government supported Japan
Scholarship Association. Assistance is also offered by local
governments, on-profit corporations and other institutions.
PROSPECTS OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES.
Private universities have become a challenge to their public
counterparts by maintaining stable academic calendars and by preventing
cultism. Their teaching and learning environment is generally better
because of their manageable size. They have also fared better in the NUC
accreditation and have been able to attract a sizeable number of
foreign academics. In the 2013 webometric worldwide accreditation
ranking for universities, CU placed 1st among all Nigerian universities.
Also, PAU and American University of Nigeria (AUN) are two of the best
staff paying universities in Africa however they are the two most
expensive in terms of cost. In 2010, the African Union (AU) Higher
education Accreditation Committee ranked CU as the 7th best in Africa
and also the #1 ranked university in Nigeria. CU is now 15 years old
with a vision to be among the best ten in the world by 2022.
Asides better funding, the strict disciplinary codes have reduced the
propensity to cultism and student rascalism among students. It has also
reduced the very rampant academic strikes generally obtainable in public
universities. Students can now fix a specific date to graduation.
Public universities now have to deal with competition which they were
never used to. The Christian universities however are often criticised
for their fees and most times by comparing them with missionary owned
primary and secondary schools of the past. Times have changed and there
is really nothing to compare present private universities to in the
Nigeria of the past. Schools basically provide all their amenities
themselves from roads to water to electricity. Historians recall that
lack of funding caused the Christ Apostolic Church to hand over 20
secondary schools to the government in the 1970s in Nigeria. It thus
means that most of the critics will actually prefer the Christian
universities to close down for lack of funding than to retain their
regime of appropriate pricing of education (sometimes with heavy
subsidies embedded) and be sustained; this gives the impression that it
is more a matter of envy or lazy criticism. Academic competitiveness has
improved the lot of students. In the days of yore, some marks were
kept for 'God ', thus a student with a second class lower in a Nigerian
University would easily come up with a first class in an American
University. Now public universities lavish first class grades on
deserving students.
The most prestigious and well-known schools
in the world are largely private/christian universities. In the United
States (US), the Ivy League universities like Harvard and Yale are
private universities and among the best in the world. Harvard’s $26
billion endorsement is the largest of any academic institution in the
world.
In summary, proper funding and good management are basic
criterion for university growth. These revolve around proper planning
,visionary and focused leadership and high ethical standards. Private
universities in Nigeria display potential for improvement and better
focus with age.Thus, the government’s inability to meet the growing
demand for university education led to emergence of private
universities. The fall in public university standards have made private
universities more attractive and preferable although expensive.
Furthermore, Nigeria needs more universities to cater for her
population. The increase in private universities globally is partly due
to their specialized functions. Nigeria could take a cue from the
Japanese system by giving students 'work-study' opportunities,
scholarships, loans and grants. Nigerian private universities like
Harvard, represent vibrant growing institutions of higher learning with
potential excellence. Sustainable monitoring and quality control
policies must be maintained to meet international standards and also to
attract foreign academics.
If the current trend is maintained in
the Nigerian tertiary system, the best 10 universities by 2037 will all
be Private Universities with a heavy dose of their Christian
Counterparts included.
Leke Beecroft is an author, artist and Air Traffic Controller
