the fedral government plan to convert some of the
universities in the country to
mega universities to address
the problem of low admission
spaces in existing universities is a welcome development. It
should be supported by all
stakeholders in the nation’s
education sector. The initiative, which has been
approved by the National
Economic Council (NEC), will
involve the conversion of one
university in each of the
country’s six geo-political zones to a mega university, as
recommended by the
Technical Committee which
reviewed the
recommendations of the
Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities. Briefing newsmen on this
development after a recent
National Executive Council
meeting in Abuja recently,
Anambra State Governor and
Head of the Technical Committee, Mr. Peter Obi,
explained that government
will expand the intake of the
mega universities to 200,000,
as against the less than 30,000
currently admitted by some of the biggest universities in
the country. The government has,
however, not taken any
decision on the institutions
that will be involved in the
conversion exercise and the
nature of the expansion. Expansion of admission spaces
in the nation’s universities and
other tertiary institutions is
long overdue, considering the
increasing number of
candidates that take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME) and the
limited number offered
admission each year. Available
statistics show that out of 1.7
million candidates that sat for the UTME this year, only about
520,000 will be offered
admission in universities and
other institutions of higher
learning in the country. The
paucity of admission spaces in Nigerian universities is a cause
for concern. It has even made some
parents to send their children
and wards to European and
American universities. This has
led to huge capital flight
estimated at $500 million annually. Parents who could
not afford the high cost of
education in Europe and
America send their children to
neighbouring West African
countries like Togo and Ghana. While converting some of our
universities to mega
institutions will enhance their
intake of students,
government should be ready
for challenges that may vitiate this laudable objective. Expansion of admission spaces
will need to be preceded by
expansion of physical facilities
such as classrooms, libraries,
laboratories, lecture theatres
and workshops, amongst other things. It will also
require increase in academic
and non-academic staff.
Government must be ready
for the challenge of funding
the expansion of facilities in the planned mega institutions.
A recent survey of Nigerian
universities indicated a dearth
of qualified lecturers to their
programmes. It revealed that
only 43 percent of academic staff in the institutions had
doctorate degrees. Only seven
universities in the country
have up to 60 percent of their
teaching staff with Doctor of
Philosophy (Ph.D) qualification. Teacher/student
ratio in Nigerian universities
varies. The ratio at the National Open
University of Nigeria is 1–363;
University of Abuja, 1–122
and Lagos State University, 1–
144. Compared with
universities abroad, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology has been reported
to have 1–9; Cambridge, 1–3
and Harvard 1– 4. Physical
facilities in most Nigerian
universities are inadequate. Virtually all the libraries and
science laboratories are
obsolete. All these are
pointers to the poor
performance of our
universities in global university rankings in recent
years. If the government is serious
about converting some
existing universities into
mega universities, it must be
ready to do all that is
necessary to improve staffing and develop physical
infrastructure. Government
should encourage more
qualified candidates to pursue
doctorate degrees, locally and
abroad. This can be done through granting of
scholarship to those interested
in pursuing the programme.
Another area that
government should address
frontally is education funding. The nation’s education sector
is seriously under-funded. The allocation of N426 billion
to education, though an
improvement over past
budgets, still cannot
adequately address the
problems of the sector. Inasmuch as increasing spaces
for university admission in
the country is desirable, it
should be done in such a way
that the quality of university
education in Nigeria is not compromised.

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