Why Nigerian Universities Rank Low
Poor funding, incessant strikes and myriad problems are the bane of the universities
Nigerian universities are punching below their weight. Indeed they are now a shadow of their former selves. Some would go so far as to describe most of them as glorified secondary schools. University of Ibadan, the oldest, was established in 1948 by the colonial administration. After independence in 1960, four more universities were established. Today there are 170 universities including both government and private owned. Of these 43 are federal universities, while 48 are state owned universities. In all, there are 79 private universities. However, what we have gained in number we seem to have lost in quality and excellence.
Between the 50s and 80s, the universities could hold their own among their peers overseas. They were noted for quality teaching, research and excellence. The professors were world acclaimed scholars. Today the reverse is almost the case. Only the University of Ibadan ranks among the first ten in Africa, according to Times Higher Education (THE) rankings. Also, UI makes the global cut among the best 500 in the world. Interestingly Lagos State University (LASU) also makes the cut between 500-600 bracket in the World University Ranking 2021, which includes more than 1500 universities across 93 countries and regions in the world. In addition, two private universities, Covenant University and Afe Babalola University have been making waves.
Also these rankings corroborate the recent findings of the National Universities Commission (NUC). Again, the University of Ibadan ranked first out of 113 universities that participated in the NUC rankings. Federal University of Technology, Akure was second in the rankings, according to Professor Peter Okebukola. He stated this during a capacity building workshop on improving the rankings of public universities.
Some of the metrics used for the rankings include total number of students, international students, student-staff ratio, efficiency, google scholar index, contribution to knowledge, percentage of international staff, percentage of programmes with full time accreditation and all citations per capital etc.
On his part, Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Fund (TETFund), Prof Elias Bogoro observed that Nigerian universities were not doing well in global ranking. “The situation is so unfortunate and worrisome that it calls for reflection and action on the part of government, the Nigerian intelligentsia and indeed the people.”
He further said, it is challenging in the sense that the success of our universities is tied to the progress and development of the nation. Bogoro said Nigerian universities must be repositioned to be competitive and to take the lead in research and innovation to promote the growth of our country and its economy.
Lack of adequate funding by the various governments remains a hindrance to the performance of the universities in the global ranking of world universities, said the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof Abubakar Adamu, who also emphasized that the universities need consistent improved funding in order to compete globally.
Generally, our universities are underfunded and do not come near the UN standard of 27 per cent of the annual budget of a nation. At the moment, the federal government allocates 5-7 percent of the budget to education. Some have argued that government’s decision to abolish tuition fees in federal universities in 1977 has robbed the universities of a steady source of funding.
Due to the changing economic fortunes of the government, it is imperative that the university system should begin to look inwards and look beyond government for sustenance. The universities must move with the changing times and key into fund raising, investment income, endowments, gifts and grants from the private sector and individuals.
Also intervention agencies set up by the government such as TETFund, Nigeria Education Bank Fund, Industrial Training Fund, Petroleum Trust Fund,Education Tax Fund and National Science and Technology Fund should be adequately funded to enable them perform optimally.
Today, the increase in the number of universities and the exponential growth of students enrollment and population without corresponding increase in budgetary allocation have shortchanged the university system. Thus inadequate funding has led to general decay in infrastructure and poor maintenance of the universities.
No doubt, the universities have been afflicted by the rot that permeates the society as a whole. They have been bitten by the corruption bug. Once citadels of morality and exemplary conduct, and led by men of unimpeachable integrity, the universities now wallow in moral turpitude and licentiousness. They are anything but centers of academic excellence.
The slide to the current depths did not begin today. Nigerian universities suffered their worst fate during the military era. Universities were closed at the whim of the maximum rulers and strikes became common place. Back then lecturers were sacked for “teaching what they were not paid to teach.” In short, the military emasculated the universities and virtually starved them of funds.
The onset of democracy has made little impact in the university system. Rather the universities have sunk to the lowest depths in the current democratic dispensation as agreements signed between government and the Academic Staff Unions of Universities (ASSU) are routinely breached. This has led to incessant strikes within the university system, further eroding whatever remains of academic excellence.
One of the sticky points in the negotiation with government is ASSU's insistence that the universities shouldn’t be lumped with the Civil Service in the implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) introduced by the government to automate payroll and human resource.
ASSU insists that this will further erode the autonomy and independence of the universities because of the peculiarities and flexibility of the university system. Besides, ASSU Calabar branch coordinator, Mr Anieken Brown stated that this was a flagrant negation and violation of the law.
As Nigerian universities continue to slide in worldwide university rankings, there are fears that ASSU might embark on another strike action if the government reneges on the December 2020 agreement. ASSU had accused government of bad faith after it called off a nine month strike in December 2020.
However, the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige has allayed fears, saying government has released the second tranche of payment and that 30 billion Naira revitalization fund was already in the account of the NUC ready for disbursement to the universities. Another 22.72 billion Naira for Earned Allowances has been released.
Ngige lamented the level of funding of universities, and that funding of universities should not be left to the federal government alone. However, he declared government's commitment towards revamping the university system during a chat with Channels Television.
To reverse this ugly trend, it is incumbent on all stakeholders, that is, both federal, state and local governments, as well as the private sector to show renewed commitment to education and to provide adequate funding for the universities in order to stave the present rot, and redress the issue of funding so that the universities would be in a pole position to compete globally.