Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, has attributed the poor rating of Nigerian universities globally to lack of adequate funding.He urged the Federal and state governments, as well as the private sector to dedicate more resources to the funding of education to remove those challenges that make the nation’s universities to attract less global recognition.



Okebukola stated this in a paper titled: Can The Bones Rise Again? A Peep Into The Revitalisation Of The Nigerian University Reform, which he delivered at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti during the institution’s 23rd convocation ceremony.He added that the university system would continue to fail in Nigeria until poor staffing and insecurity, among others were resolved before the country could rise to stardom in its higher education reforms and global rating.

He said it was pathetic that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) established by the Federal Government to fund tertiary institutions, could only give financial support to a few universities, while others were made to develop at slow pace.

Describing the development as a serious impediment to the growth of Nigerian universities, Okebukola advocated radical curricula reforms by the NUC to promote the new ideal of entrepreneurial education that would make students self-employable and relevant in the labour market.“Nigerian universities are having a lot of challenges, but funding is the major denominator. It has caused poor power supply, poor information and communication technology (ICT) network, low students’ enrollment and poor infrastructure in our universities.

“50 per cent of the institutions in Nigeria complained about epileptic power supply. Many of them rely on alternative power supply such as generators. This has resulted in increased cost of running the institutions.“About 37.5 per cent of the institutions perceived lack of support from the government through TETFund as a major setback in financing the development of infrastructure and they also complained of multiple-taxation.”

“Surveyed also showed that about 50 percent of the universities complained that the universities have low enrollments, because many of the students could not afford the cost,” he said.He said the country must tackle terrorism in the Northeast to make the institutions in the area safe for Nigerians.Speaking on the need for curricula reforms, Okebukola said: “There is an ongoing higher education reform under the auspices of the NUC, NBTE, NCCE. One of the drivers of this effort is the realisation that in the next 10 years, the jobs that will be available for graduates at the national level and globally will be different from what we have today”.

http://www.akelicious.net/2018/06/why-nigerian-universities-rank-poorly.html

In all modesty, Our Universities are an eye sore the government does not give any attention to education. It's quite pathetic

Funding and funding.

Funding and funding. After funding embezzlement sets in. What of poor immoral funding among students and lectures where lectures / professors exchange sex with academic grades.
Am not disputing the points stressed by professor but immortality cum indiscipline contributions to poor ranking of academics in Nigeria universities

No sir, it is because while you were at the helm of affairs there was a deliberate effort to relegate public universities while giving license to glorified secondary school to run as universities.

Viralkid:
In all modesty, Our Universities are an eye sore the government does not give any attention to education. It's quite pathetic

..its a big fat lie...that's the language of the SSUU So money can be released to them to share and not find skls....

Stupid question deserving an equally stupid answer.

How can a country begin to appraise its education when every institution but the 'National Assembly' is grossly under funded?

Nigerians are always asking the wrong questions.

A better question would be does Nigeria's FG give any respect to human rights? One of such rights is a right to equal education for all irrespective of social class.

Does Nigeria enforce the values of human rights? If so politicians would not send their children to school abroad in fear of reprisal.

We deserve better.

...hnmm

" Professor Peter Okebukola, has attributed the poor rating of Nigerian universities globally to lack of adequate funding"

The above statement put me off.. I didn't bother to finish reading.

The ones that have the funds, grants and what have you, what have they done with it I know of couple of lecturers that divert such grants for their personal use, instead of using it for the research they proposed. at the end, they cookup false claims.

You guys are in stone age. What have you ever contributed? You think writing paper for talk shows abi seminar will make me want to invest in your school, which I even know that the VC and other echelons will siphon.

corruption in our tertiary institutions is more worrisome compare to other institutions. pathetic!

ALL OUR UNIVERSITY SHOULD BE CONVERTED INTO FARMS, ATLEAST THAT WILL BE MORE PRODUCTIVE.

Ok

The problem is MONEY

He said it was pathetic that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) established by the Federal Government to fund tertiary institutions, could only give financial support to a few universities, while others were made to develop at slow pace.

And there it is....the cash is not there. Meanwhile,we insist on paying N40000 for degrees that should cost N600000 at least yearly. And Govt does not have the trillions...not billions...needed to fund universites.

Also

50 per cent of the institutions in Nigeria complained about epileptic power supply. Many of them rely on alternative power supply such as generators. This has resulted in increased cost of running the institutions.“About 37.5 per cent of the institutions perceived lack of support from the government through TETFund as a major setback in financing the development of infrastructure and they also complained of multiple-taxation.”

And weneed $300bn to fix power. Our reserves are at $40billion. Do the math.

Either we raise taxes, fees and whatnot...or we just close our eyes and take another LOAN....that our grandkids will still be paying.

I don't think the problem is funding. There is no good relationship between the lecturers and students. A large number of lecturers are sadists and killjoys for no reason

isoright

adioolayi:
" Professor Peter Okebukola, has attributed the poor rating of Nigerian universities globally to lack of adequate funding"

The above statement put me off.. I didn't bother to finish reading.

The ones that have the funds, grants and what have you, what have they done with it I know of couple of lecturers that divert such grants for their personal use, instead of using it for the research they proposed. at the end, they cookup false claims.

ASUU/FG agreement in 2009 stated that foruniversites to be adequately funded we need to spent at least N1.5trillion yearly on JUST UNIVERSITES....note...JUST UNIVERSITES.

And the thing is, that money has not been paid since 2009...and the previous admin flat out told ASUU in 2013 that they could not pay the money.

Meanwhile,fees are kept low...because poverty.

The thing is, we need an education budget of at least N5 trillion yearly to make sure we have enough cash to fund universites. Our budget has never passed N10 trillion. Even NationalAssembly, the greedy fellows,spend N1trillion yearly.

Hmm naija

The main issue is the lack of multiculturalism in our Universities. A standard university should have academics and students from all around the world. But this is very unlikely in Nigerian universities. Well, this is also related to funding...

Funding, funding. what's the result of the little fund

shanequeen:
Funding, funding. what's the result of the little fund

The ASUU FG agremeent states that universites need N1.5 trillion to be adequately funded. In reality, we spend less than N700bn yearly on education (that's all the sectors, primary, secondary and tertiaty).

Recently ABU's VC stated that his overhead costs per month are N50million. That's 600million yearly. He gets N120million yearly from the govt for overheads.You expect him to perform on just 1/4 tank?

Imagine, because of funding

I stop reading on the first paragraph. To most Nigerians everything Govt must pay. What about the School raising fund from summer and part time programs,

And most of them received foreign aid projects but yam the money

SHEY NA BUBU AN INTERNATIONAL COW FARMER YOU WANT MAKE HE FOUND EDUCATION SECTOR OR OBASANJO AND JONA?

come and see how Madonna is

Because you teach us nonsense?

so in Nigeria it is only university of ibadan that made it to the top 1000 universities in the world

https://infoducation.com.ng/university-of-ibadan-becomes-the-only-nigerian-university-enlisted-among-the-best-1000-universities-in-the-world/

He was my pro chancellor back then...he was very stern,intelligent and nice to.....had the privilege of sitting close to him one sunday.

ANOTHER REASON:-Sex for marks...

Viralkid:
In all modesty, Our Universities are an eye sore the government does not give any attention to education. It's quite pathetic

The govt subsidizes the average ui and unilag grad by over N300k per student yearly. So mismanagement is a huge part of it. Covenant one of the good private schools started charging 170k then 250k for its first 4 years of operation so do the maths yourself.