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THE EFFECTS OF INCREASE IN TUITION FEES ON BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS’ ENROLMENT IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN EKITI STATE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Tertiary education can be defined as the level of education acquired after secondary education in higher institutions of learning such as Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of education and other institutions of higher learning offering correspondence courses, diplomas and certificates. Famade, Omiyale and Adebola (2015) citing Ahmed (2011) they opined that the challenges confronting tertiary institutions in Nigeria include financing and funding, the growth of private tertiary institutions, management challenges and so on but the challenge dealing the worst deathblow is that of underfunding of tertiary institutions. Nwangwu (2005) in Famade et al (2015) stated that the foundation of education is frail when education is not well funded and the products of such foundation are weak intellectuals. When there were just few tertiary institutions, Government saddle the burden of funding the institutions solely but from the mid- 1980’s there was a massive increase in the number of tertiary institutions and in students’ enrolment in Nigeria. This increase has gotten to the point where Government openly acknowledged that it can no longer saddle the responsibility of funding institutions alone.

The Federal Government of Nigeria is increasingly finding it difficult to meet the high cost of funding tertiary education in Nigeria and if tertiary institutions in the country are to survive, there is an urgent need to seek out means of improving their funding. It is instructive to note that education is a right and not a privilege and if this is to become a reality in the Nigerian context then education needs to be subsidized and better funded at the tertiary level. In the face of the declining financial resource allocation to the education sector, there is the need for alternative channels of funding which will ensure qualitative education and graduates from Nigerian education system.

The history of higher education in Nigeria dated back to the period of colonial era with the establishment of Yaba Higher College in 1932 which marked the turning point of higher education in Nigeria. The Higher College was established to produce “assistants” who would relieve colonial administrators of menial tasks (Olujuwon, 2002).The establishment of higher educational institutions was in pursuit of meeting the global requirements of producing manpower that will serve in different capacities and contribute positively to the nation’s socio-economic and political development in Nigeria (Abdulkareem, Fasasi and Akinubi, 2011). The Federal Government of Nigeria promulgated enabling law to institute higher education towards producing high level relevant manpower training, self-reliance, national development through the establishment of both conventional and special universities, polytechnics, mono-technics and colleges of education in different parts of the country by the Federal, state governments, private organizations and individuals (Abdulkareem, Fasasi and Akinubi, 2011).

The Nigerian tertiary institutions comprise of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Institutes of Technology and other professional institutions operating under the umbrella of their parent ministries. The institutions can be further categorised into State Government Institutions and Federal Institutions. Tertiary institutions are also grouped into Public Institutions owned by the Federal and State Government and private Institutions owned by Individuals, Religious bodies and other private organizations.