Private Universities

The Nigerian Universities form an integral part of the higher educational system which forms the bedrock that promotes socio-economic, political and cultural development of the country. Prior to the emergence of the private universities in late 90s and early 2000s, the Federal and State universities accounted for all university education in Nigeria. The surge in demand for university education over the last 20 years which far outweighs its supply, led to the introduction of private universities (or deregulation of higher education) in the late 90s. The emergence of Babcock, Igbinedion and Madonna Universities which were established in 1999 pioneered private university system in Nigeria and between this period and now, the number of privately owned universities has also grown to 45 and still growing. As at 2010, the total number of Nigerian universities rose to 104 with a pooled student enrolment of about 1.5M. This growth is due largely to increase in the number of private Universities which has translated to overall increase in the number of students undergoing university education. School year of Est. No. of Student Av. Tuition (N) Babcock University 1999 640,000 Igbinedion University 1999 12,000 605,000 Madonna University 1999 8,000 600,000 Bowen University 2001 10,000 600,000 Covenant University 2002 awaiting confirmation Benson Ihahosa Uni. 2002 awaiting confirmation Lead City University 2002 5000 With overall average of 6,000 (Six thousand) students per school and average tuition/fees of N500,000.00 (Five hundred thousand Naira only) per student, the revenue from school tuition stands at N3b (Three billion Naira only) per academic session. As commendable as the increase in the number of this category of schools and their numbers of student output are, one of the major area of concerns in the level and development of infrastructures in these private universities; the public universities still absorb 69% of university students while the private universities are...