Director: Daniel C. Levy

Pushing for Public Funding

PROPHE Summary:

A call has been made for Nigeria’s governments to help with financing for students at private institutions.  The proponent cites broad rationales for expanding tertiary education, and the positive effects of a private presence on choice, quality, and jobs, noting too that the present economic crisis, overall and for Nigeria’s oil revenues, adds urgency to the call for government help. “Government” refers to all levels of government.

For the full story, see THIS DAY, March 3, 2009, "Nigeria: Govt Tasked On Private Tertiary Institutions' Funding" by Funmi Ogundare.http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=137146

PROPHE Observation:

What may be most noteworthy here is that the call is for aid to students, not directly to institutions. This may be consistent with concern for choice, competition, and access, and certainly echoes the cited U.S. experience (though it is inaccurate to say that students are eligible at all U.S. institutions since in fact students eligible for aid must be at accredited institutions). Globally, we see a rise in ways to get public money to bolster the private sector of higher education without giving direct subsidies to institutions.