Why Many Nigerian Private Universities May Go Extinct In The Next Decade

Ifelola Olaleye

Currently, the NUC has revealed it is processing the application of 292 new private universities. This is in response to the inability of over one million students who are unable to get placing in Nigerian tertiary institutions and a way of weakning the impact of ASUU-led industrial actions on the higher education sector.

While it is true that Nigeria has a low number of university per population unlike the likes of United States and India with 5,000 and 8,000 universities respectively, Nigeria must however be very careful to anticipate the challenges ahead.


Low Popularity and Reputation: There are tons of private universities today which are unknown by the Nigerian public. Students generally do not want to study in schools they cannot brag of, irrespective of it's academic potentials hence a university's inability to secure popularity and reputation might be the path to its doom. Second generation private universities(created after 2010) are particularly bedeviled by the challenge of low reputation.

Poor Funding: Private Universities generally manage available funds better than their public counterpart and that might be the reason why the Nigerian public has missed the cry of Private universities in Nigeria for inclusion in Tetfund as just greed. However, private universities are finding it hard to balance accounts between paying huge amounts as wage bill, utilities(electricity), infrastructure development and so on. Despite the accusations of exploitative fees, private universities are struggling because the money they charge isn't even enough to cover their expenses. In most private universities it would take an average of about 12 students school fees to pay jut one Professor's annual salary. This then makes many private university resort to employing lecturers on part time.

Rising Debt Profile: In a bid to keep up infrastructurally, most private universities are resorting to financing their budgets through humongous loans while others are using loans as seed capital for setting up infrastructure. Debt in itself isn't bad as universities the likes of Stanford also use debt in financing their budget. Though for Nigerian universities there is usually one way to repay and that is raising fees.

Chronic Low Student Enrollment Today, Nigerian private universities are competing for a small middle class population and with the rise of newer private universities, the competition only becomes stiffer. Much of the first generation private universities who could easily secure over a thousand students in the early 2000s are now finding it more challenging. However it is important to note that while most private universities are having lower enrollments some are actually having increased enrollments.

Nigerian Public's Misconception Of University Rankings: Perhaps one of the things that has damaged the reputation of private universities are university rankings which are severely misunderstood by the Nigerian public. Today, parents and students alike log onto Google to search for the best universities in Nigeria just to find private universities sitting at the bottom of most tables with federal universities leading. Unfortunately they do not understand the methodology and flaws of such ranking systems. For instance the size and popularity of a university can directly impact on most university rankings like 4icu or unirank. Some other rankings are also made up by individuals with the sole intent to mislead the public. Other research rankings like webometrics has size standardization as issues and would naturally see bigger university take lead to the disadvantage of smaller ones.

Inability To Attract Students From Wealthy Homes: Very few Nigerian private universities can attract Children of the very rich in Nigeria, most usually attract middle class parents who do not want their children to suffer the effects of the rot in public universities. Also, there is proof that while private universities are suffering from low enrollment, the likes of the United Kingdom still enjoys huge patronage from Nigerian students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. For private universities to survive they must be able to attract the children of very wealthy families also. High networth individuals also have the capacity to increase radically the chances of a university to generate larger IGR through their campus purchases and procurement.

Recommendations For Private Universities in Nigeria.
Private Universities in Nigeria can survive but it would be tough and requiring of serious innovations particularly in the next few years as hundreds of more private universities join the Nigerian university system.

Private universities should have strong media presence.
Private Universities should explore recruiting students from neighbouring countries.
Private universities should explore delving into French taught programmes for the West African francophone neighbours.
Private Universities should continue to Lubby for inclusion in Tetfund.
Private universities must drop absurd rules and embrace moderate philosophy.
Private universities must continue to attract local and international scholarships for indigent student.
Private Universities must understand that her student and Alumni community are the best ambassadors of the university. When they speak Ill of their almamater they dreal an irreversible deathblow to the university.