More universities diminish, rather than boost quality -By Levi Obijiofor

It started off as a rumour. Three weeks later, the rumour was confirmed. It is difficult to understand why the Federal Government would approve the establishment of nine new private universities four years after it approved six federal universities.

The last time the government approved the establishment of six federal universities in November 2010, the Education Minister at the time, Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, argued the decision was meant to reduce the high demand for limited undergraduate places in the universities. She said that more than 84 per cent of qualified undergraduate applicants were turned down because the universities had exceeded their capacity.

Sometimes, you have to wonder how and why government officials make decisions that defy logic. Barely two months ago (Wednesday, 7 January, 2015), a deputy director at the National Universities Commission (NUC), Ashafa Ladan, said at a public lecture in Ilorin, Kwara State, that fewer than 50 per cent of university lecturers in Nigeria had the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. As if that was not shocking enough, Ladan said lack of adequate teaching staff in the universities had negatively impacted on the accreditation of many of the higher education institutions.

With emphasis on the state of private universities in the country, Ladan said, to the astonishment of the audience: “Most of the teaching staff in private universities are either employed on sabbatical, visiting or adjunct basis due essentially to difficulty in attracting quality staff at this level… The quality of teaching staff (senior lecturers and above) posed a greater challenge with regard to mentoring, research and research leadership, effective linkages, journal publication and the general evaluation system of standing of the university.”

The deputy director said the underperformance of private university staff had a serious effect on the efficient administration of many of the over 50 private universities in the country. Admitting that ineffective management was one of the key issues facing private universities, Ladan said the universities had tried unsuccessfully to establish a good structure.

It is against this background of paucity of quality teaching staff and lack of good administrative personnel in private universities that the Federal Government has senselessly approved the establishment of nine more private universities. There are some questions that must baffle stakeholders in the higher education sector in Nigeria. What sound reasons informed the decision of the government to approve the new private universities? Did the government consult with the National Universities Commission? Did the government have access to the damning statistics on the poor quality of teaching staff in private universities as well as the unskilled administrative staff? What input did the Federal Education Minister make in the debate that preceded the decision to establish new private universities?

These questions are fundamental because the decision to establish new private universities flies in the face of the many challenges that confront existing universities. If the government and private university proprietors have not been able to deal sufficiently with the issues that have undermined the quality of university education across the country (both in public and private universities), why would anyone put up their hands to set up new universities and why would the government even consider applications for the establishment of new universities?

Let’s spit out this point before it gets cold. Nine new private universities will not enhance the quality of university education. The government must understand that the quality of teaching, learning and research in Nigerian universities will not be boosted merely by shooting up the number of universities. Excellence in university education has never been assessed, calculated or considered through the physical number of universities.

If the aim of approving nine private universities is to reduce the long queue of students, waiting to gain admission into public universities, the government has got it wrong. New universities – private or public – will not automatically end the frustration that potential students go through to gain admission into universities. Emphasis should not be on increasing the number of universities.

If students are admitted into back street universities that can hardly justify their existence, the degrees and certificates awarded by those universities will be useless. Without basic facilities in lecture theatres and without well-equipped libraries and science laboratories, undergraduate and postgraduate students will watch their dreams of receiving quality education shattered in no distant time. Another problem is that Nigerian universities will become less competitive than their overseas counterparts because of lack of quality.

Part of the reason the quality of university education has collapsed in the country is that politicians and wealthy businessmen and women have placed their personal interests above high standards in the universities. Rather than consider how to improve the quality of teaching and learning and research in existing universities, the government is playing Father Christmas by dishing out licences to proprietors whose main interest in the higher education sector is driven by the profit motive. With this kind of mindset, it will be very difficult to overcome the serious challenges that confront universities in Nigeria.

It is a disgrace that the government is promoting the commercialisation of university education through indiscriminate approval of licences for private universities. Private university proprietors could argue that universities are like any other business. As private institutions, they must make money for their owners. This mentality has added to the pressures that universities are facing in Nigeria. For example, in just under five years, the government has approved the establishment of 15 public and private universities. This means, on average, the establishment of three new universities every year.

This kind of decision can never be approved or justified in a country in which the government and the citizens are concerned about quality of university education. What is the value of a university without quality and innovative teaching as well as cutting edge research? While universities in overseas countries are promoting a culture of research, our government is more concerned about increasing the number of universities, regardless of the consequences.

Commercialisation of university education must worry all stakeholders in the higher education sector. The explosion in the number of universities is taking place in a free-for-all environment in which licences are issued unsystematically to the highest bidders. This suggests lack of a methodical policy on university education or at best a wobbly policy that is designed to satisfy the interests of a few privileged citizens.

One major consequence of indiscriminate establishment of universities in Nigeria is a crumbling employment sector. With graduates of existing universities already finding it excruciatingly difficult to secure jobs, where will the graduates of new universities find work? More specifically, how would the new universities overhaul the crippling problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria? They will only contribute to the already lengthy queue of job seekers across the country.

When university graduates complete their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, they live hopeless lives, wandering the streets and wondering when they will get jobs that will justify their university education. It is a damning situation that says a lot about the lack of foresight and planning in our higher education sector.

When the Education Minister, Ibrahim Shekarau, was asked last Wednesday, 25 February, 2015, how the government planned to prevent private universities from extorting money from students through excessive tuition fees, he said rather uncaringly that the government had no mechanisms to prevent that practice. The minister alluded instead to private medical hospitals and kindergarten schools in which the proprietors charge fees that would guarantee profitable returns on their investments. This is the kind of gross insensitivity and carelessness that ministers and other government officials often display.

Shekarau said he was gratified that all Federal Government-owned universities did not charge fees. He said: “As far as the government is concerned, all Federal Government universities are tuition-free. Whatever the universities are charging is so minimal for some day-to-day activities: Sports fees, union fees and some other fees. But the private universities are like any other private institutions: Private primary schools, private secondary schools.

All that is the responsibility of government is to ensure that the standards are maintained… Government really does not have anything to do as far as what the private institutions are charging. Tuition is free in public schools.” The decision to approve nine new private universities has been made without regard for prevailing poor standard of teaching and research in many universities across the country. The decision is offensive. It will drag university education backward rather than forward. Rather than set up more universities that will be encumbered by problems that will further diminish the quality of university education, the Federal Government should look for ways to enhance standards in the scholarship of teaching, learning and research in existing universities.

On 26 November, 2010, when I published an article on a related topic, a reader captured the essence of my arguments with the following reaction: He wrote: “I don’t know when Nigeria can ever get anything right. At a time universities all over the world are re-focusing the curriculum, in line with job demand, Nigeria is still setting up hollow universities, to teach children how Mungo Park discovered the Niger! And some would tell us that everyone needs education. Yes, we need education but we also need jobs — you can’t cook a certificate.” Nearly five years later, the government is still treading the same blind alley.