Managing Higher Education for Sustainable Development in Nigeria: Implications for Policy Challenges
Abstract
During the 20th century, formal higher education has expanded very rapidly all over the world. Investment in human resource development has been considered to be a powerful metaphor for a healthy competition in the new world order for various reasons thus an increasing private demand for higher education. The view that education is a fundamental human right contributed to the rapid expansion. Special economic, social and political power attached to the positions given to graduates of higher education, attracted more and more students. There are economic and political reasons for the expansion of higher education. For all the countries, a university has been a symbol of national or regional prestige and this, too, has been responsible for the increasing number of universities around the world. In Nigeria since independence, various governments have spent substantial portion of their national budgets to develop education. Investments in this magnitude have been justified at all times as a means of producing rapidly the skilled manpower required for national development. This paper is concerned with the quality of universities in Nigeria. The main purpose is to show that the Nigerian university system is at the crossroad.What is happening in Nigeria today is certainly widespread in Africa, but not necessarily universal. Three strong evaluative words: relevance, usefulness and identity from the thesis of the paper. The paper notes that universities in have not been particularly pertinent, serviceable and contemporary on consonance with the challenges of the new world order.
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