Private Universities in Nigeria: Their Emergence, Proliferation, Significance and Funding

The Nigerian public university education system has faced challenges in recent years, affecting the timely graduation of many students. The smaller number of universities, their insufficient enrolment spaces and frequent strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have been greatly responsible for the problem. This has led to a shift in attitudes towards public universities, with parents and students increasingly patronizing private universities over them. This, in turn, has led to the proliferation of the said private universities. However, many students and parents cannot afford private universities due to high tuition fees since the institutions have to fund all their programmes and pay staff salaries and other administrative costs, which amount to a lot of expenses. This has led to a question of whether the Federal Government could partner with private universities to fund them, even if partially. This present study, therefore, argues that, given their usefulness, private universities should be encouraged and supported by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which was established by the Nigerian government to support public tertiary institutions in the country.