Director: Daniel C. Levy

Nigerian Private Higher Education Seen as Marketization

PROPHE Summary (by Prachayani Praphamontripong):
The emergence of Nigerian private universities is seen as an attempt for marketization. There are concerns over the quality of such universities, their lecturers and students. Rarely producing research, private university owners are charged with being interested only in profit, targeting admissions with high tuition and fees. Religious providers are considered exceptions on this score. On the other hand, public-private partnership can occur when the private actors contribute to public universities by endowing chairs, providing research funds, and building hostels.

PROPHE Observation (by Daniel C. Levy):
At least the part of this article dealing with private higher education may be polemical but the charges it levels are quite common against the sector in many countries. For many, profit is an illegitimate pursuit, though it is generally difficult to define legally what is profit as opposed to resource generation within non-profit institutions. In such circumstances, one direction for public policy is stiffer regulation as well as academic accreditation, to weed out or at least identify dubious institutions. The counter-argument is that space should be allowed for new private forms, particularly as demand for higher education exceeds public university capacity to meet that demand.