Chief of Staff to the President and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, delivered a sobering critique of Nigeria’s university funding structure and proposed an internationalization model as a pathway for sustainability and growth. Drawing comparisons with global trends, Gbajabiamila emphasized that Nigerian universities must undergo structural and ethical reforms to become globally competitive.
“Instead of the citadels of learning and innovation that our young people deserve and our country desperately needs,” Gbajabiamila began, “what we currently have are institutions overly dependent on government funding, which is not sustainable.” He contextualized his argument by citing tuition models in the United Kingdom and the United States, noting that “international students, on a full-time course of undergraduate study in the United Kingdom, will pay an average of between 12,000 to 38,000 pounds per year for most courses, with medical degrees, of course, hitting about 67,000 to 70,000 pounds a year.”
He explained that the revenue generated from international students is not just supplemental but crucial to the financial stability of institutions abroad. “The financial contributions of international students are a significant revenue stream for universities worldwide,” he said. “Helping, therefore, to subsidize the university education for the students or for the citizens of those countries. So, to put it in crude language, I’ll use a parlance. So, you rob Peter to pay Paul. And there is nothing wrong with it.”
Gbajabiamila argued that this model of using higher-paying foreign students to subsidize local education is a global best practice. “You subsidize your own native students using the money of the foreign students. And don’t forget the disparity. 10,000 to 50,000. It’s a lot,” he said, stressing that “government cannot afford to fund this university… Those are the hard facts.”
Reinforcing his point with historical precedent, he recalled the 2010 fee increase in the UK. “In 2010, the coalition government in the United Kingdom increased tuition fees for undergraduates in public universities from about, I think, 3,000 pounds to 9,000 pounds… The resulting protests in the United Kingdom paralyzed that country… yet, 15 years later, tuition fees for British students have only marginally increased by about 500 pounds. Meanwhile, fees for international students tripled.”
Gbajabiamila also cited East African nations as examples Nigeria should learn from. “Our neighbors here in Rwanda, Kenya, and in South Africa… have long engaged in targeted efforts to boost funding of public universities by attracting international students.” Referencing CPS Research International, he noted, “University of Nairobi has the highest number of international students, with 1,000… making a total of about 6,000 international students just in that country.”
He challenged the Nigerian university system’s inability to attract international students. “Now, how many foreign students are in this university? If there’s any foreign student here, please rise,” he asked. “Much as we boast and we talk about Nigeria as being the giant of Africa… you can count on one hand the number of international students. And where you do find them, you find them paying exactly the same amount that the local student is paying.”
According to him, this lack of differentiation between foreign and local students eliminates the incentive and revenue that could be derived. “Call it whatever you want. Call it discrimination… But it is a necessary tool distinguishing between an international student who is in search of the golden place and who is ready to leave his country to go somewhere else,” he said. “Public universities in Nigeria can and should also look to increase their international profiles.”
He highlighted the quality gap that must be bridged for Nigerian universities to compete globally. “It will require a dramatic and sustained increase in quality across board… reforms of curriculum and teaching methods, investments to ensure technology access and comfortable and suitable lodgings amongst others,” he stated. But above all, he emphasized, “It will require us to embrace a culture of zero tolerance for unethical conduct.”
Gbajabiamila decried what he called a systemic failure in Nigerian universities. “It is by now well established that we have a problem with harassment and victimization in our higher institutions… What we have here is not a problem of a few bad apples. It is a deeply rooted and systemic issue.” He called for “stronger accountability measures, independent oversight and a culture of transparency.”
As a solution framework, he proposed a three-step approach. “First… ask what makes universities in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa… attractive. Second… audit our system to understand the financial, cultural, political, and structural and other factors… Third, we must then jointly develop multidimensional implementable plans to address those issues systematically and consistently over a definite period.”
Gbajabiamila envisioned a future where Nigerian universities could transcend their financial limitations through innovation. “Besides being citadels of knowledge… our universities can become significant commercial players in areas, in different areas of our economy,” he declared. His call was clear: if Nigeria must compete globally in education, its universities must evolve or be left behind.
