The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, has lamented the underfunding of tertiary education in Nigeria, stressing that it is affecting teaching, learning and research.
She spoke at the virtual TOPAZ 88 3rd Lecture Series, titled: “Funding Tertiary Education: Challenges and Options.”
Highlighting that every country is expected to spend 40 percent to 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product on education, Ogunsola asserted that Nigeria has never kept up with the recommendation.
She said this has left the university in a state where they could not efficiently transform people and materials into value for development.
She posited that universities are supposed to be funded from several sources, which include government, tuition fees, research grants, contracts, as well as endowments and donations.
Others as cited by her are income from investment, commercialisation of intellectual property and continued education and professional development programmes.
The Vice-Chancellor lamented that the mentioned revenue streams are not fully in operation in Nigerian universities despite the high level of expenditure needed to run the day-to-day activities of the tertiary institutions.
According to Ogunsola, foreign universities are better able to provide services because they have revenue streams from tuition, health centres and teaching hospitals, which does not apply to our institutions here
She explained with illustrations that 60 percent of income for some foreign universities is from their healthcare centres, adding that our institutions have been separated from their healthcare centres, which made one of the revenue streams unavailable.
According to her, the government only pays the salaries of university staff and leaves out other expenses and that is having a huge impact on the ability of universities to meet their budgetary plans.
She said allocation from the government has been consistently low and dwindling, stressing that inflation has continued to have an impact as well.
She alleged that there are some regulations and policies that stop universities from growing their revenue-based initiatives.
Ogunsola listed solutions to the challenges to include endowment funds, determination of the true cost of education, and base funding on valid and reliable data.
She also said the government should provide a grant tied to the student population, funds should be released periodically, with the university managing such funds independently, and student loans, bursaries, scholarships, and alumni support should also be encouraged.
Ogunsola asked for policy adjustment, payment of appropriate fees and support for those who cannot pay what is required to run first-class universities.
She also stressed the need to invest in other options for university education using technology.
