Almost 300 new universities could be created in Nigeria in the near future to help the west African country cope with its rapidly growing youth population, says a senior state official.
Abulrasheed Abubakar, executive secretary of Nigeria’s National Universities Commission, says his organisation is processing 292 applications from institutions that aspire to become private universities. If all are approved, it would almost triple the number of higher education institutions in Nigeria, which now stands at 163 for a population of almost 200 million. While many of those seeking accreditation are fairly small and specialist institutions, such as private medical schools and creative arts colleges, the new institutions will be vital in Nigeria’s plans to expand student numbers by 20 percent over the next five years.
Speaking at the annual conference of the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency, the former vice chancellor of Bayero University said a dire shortage of university capacity in Nigeria has undermined the country’s political stability. Only 19 percent of the 2 million students who applied to university were accepted last year, with about 30 percent either going abroad or pursuing vocational studies, says Abubakar. “This is a very serious situation — 1 million students do not get access to university not because they have failed their exams, but because the capacity to admit them is not there… It is a dangerous thing to have this problem of frustrated youths who are left out on the streets,” he warns.
The shortage of capacity in tertiary education is likely to become even more acute over the next few decades, with Nigeria’s population set to more than double to 399 million by 2050, making it the world’s third most populous country.
Moreover creating additional capacity for students in public universities without being able to charge tuition fees would also be difficult as “you have to provide more staff, more facilities and more equipment”, says Abubakar.