Many Nigerians hold the opinion that government must control academic institutions to ensure quality output and subsidized tuition. This is a fatal conceit. Instead ofmaking things better, government intervention is greatly responsible for the recurring strike by university unions and the poor state of higher education in the country. The present system practically commits public institutions to transferring internally generated funds to federal and state governments which in turn decide the mode of funding for these institutions. In a broad economic sense, such system would always be liable to unstable funding especially when government income are poor performing or when it has other pressing financial commitments. Worst still, the system does not make transparent, the parameters of funding of these institutions in relation to their actual needs. Rather, governments must see the management of public universities and colleges as the best custodian for the financial operations of their institutions.
Issues like what projects to initiate; how many academic staffs to hire or maintain;or what would be the appropriate tuition are information available to the best knowledge of school managements, not the federal or state governments. But when governments dictate operations especially budgeting, issues of financial durability arises. This is the obvious consequence because unlike university managements whose primary concerns are sustenance and quality output, politics and financial prudence influence government policies on education. For example, before the federal or any state government approves salaries for university staffs, it usually considers their current revenue cap and expenses on other sectors like health and transportation, which are not often in the best interest of academic institutions. Allowing these institutions more autonomy would permit better decisionmaking to improve academic productivity and effectively end to the funding crisis.
Part of the reason public universities across the world are successful is because they charge in accordance to service offered,not undercharge. And if unions must not go on strike, it is necessary that managements, in this case the government, have strong budgets to meet their salary cap. Obviously, this is impossible in the current economic state. The present system heavily rely on government subsidies i.e., in tuition support because people simply wants the government to help towards affordable higher education. The reality is that subsidised schemes such as this are hardly sustained, and this is simple logic. When people pay less for education and government subsidize the greater part, the system would likely suffer when government revenue drops, and this summarize the present situation. Meanwhile, with the appropriate tuition charges paid directly to schools under transparent managements, academic institutions would be able to run their affairs effectively. For example, if school X used to have 200 academic staffs that the government struggles to maintain, it may reduce the number to a manageable quota based on its budget and need.
Equally, when the charges are right and government disengages, market forces like individual choice and price would help the free market of higher education grow.
Already, the number of universities in the country is overwhelming while the concentration of students remains heavy in public institutions. Of course, the subsidised tuition in public universities and colleges would attract students, which is the reason private universities get less patronage even as they offer better service in most cases. Still, government’s involvement is not helping the balance on both sides and as noted earlier, this would hardly be the case in a free market of higher education. If governments remain committed to ensuring admission for the enormous number of annual high school graduates, the abundance of higher institutions in the country can sufficiently accommodate qualified students without the need for more institutions. When the existing public universities have the autonomy to operate, there would be competition with the private universities and healthy competition is essential for better academic output at an affordable price.
Normally, tuition would gradually decrease while the quality of service increases. This is unlikely to happen with government as custodian or with academic tuition subsidised. Equally, when public schools make more money and keep enough by charging appropriate fees, they may expand their programs for more intakes. If at all the government needs to spend on higher education, it can assist academic institutions to improve on research capacities and infrastructure. For instance, medical and engineering research needs more investment to drive the country towards quality healthcare and tech revolution, which is a necessity in this age. The success of sectors like telecommunication, banking and entertainment proves things work best when government control is minimal. Therefore, the dilapidating state of higher education in the country needs this urgent free market for better output at affordable cost.
- Anoba is the Acting Executive Director at African Liberty Organisation for Development.
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