Nigeria’s Federal Government has introduced a six-year moratorium on the establishment of new tertiary institutions, including universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, as part of reforms aimed at addressing sustainability concerns within the country’s higher education sector.
The decision, approved by the Federal Executive Council, is intended to prioritise improvements in the quality and viability of existing institutions rather than expanding the number of schools. According to the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, the policy reflects growing concerns that many institutions, particularly privately owned universities, are struggling to maintain sustainable operations despite the persistent demand for higher education.
The minister explained that the pause forms part of a broader set of reforms within the education sector. He also disclosed that the government had approved amendments to the National Postgraduate Medical College Act, a move designed to recognise medical fellowship qualifications as equivalent to PhD degrees.
To examine the implications of the policy, Arise News spoke with a university lecturer, Aminu Ishaku, who provided insight into the evolving dynamics of Nigeria’s tertiary education system. At the start of the discussion, Ishaku clarified his position within the academic community.
"All right. Thank you very much again for having me. Let me start by uh correcting that I am the head of department of geology and gemology at the university of Abuja notello university and um regarding your question I think the honorable minister of education uh Dr. Tuning allows is quite correct regarding the issue of access."
Ishaku said that for many years the central argument in Nigeria’s education debate focused on expanding access to tertiary education by establishing more universities. However, he observed that the rapid growth of institutions has gradually shifted the conversation towards sustainability and quality.
"The problem has always been in the past that we need more institutions. We need more uh universities in order to increase access uh to tertiary education and university education."
He explained that successive administrations responded to pressure for expanded access by approving the creation of new institutions across the country. In some cases, he said, critics argued that the establishment of universities was influenced by political considerations.
"But in recent times, after the federal government has embarked on what I can call a voyage of establishment of new tax sharing institutions across the country. uh almost uh to the point of being accused of uh being very political in establishing universities and the universities are now becoming more of uh constituency project of politicians."
According to him, government justification for approving additional institutions was based partly on data showing that the number of applicants seeking admission exceeded the capacity of available universities.
"Now this pressure buildup uh against the federal government uh led the federal government in many ways and at many times also explaining the fact that uh we need more students based on the data available to them uh from JAM that there are a lot of students that are applying to study in tertiary institutions in Nigeria than the carrying capacity of these institutions uh can can take."
However, he noted that recent data indicates the situation may have changed, with the expansion of state and private universities increasing available spaces in the system.
"But recently the same government also realized that uh going by the available data uh from JAM that access is no longer an issue because there are more private universities now uh more state universities than federal universities."
He further pointed to emerging trends showing that some institutions have struggled to attract applicants.
"And recently government realized that in the last jam exercise there are lots of universities that did not have much uh applicants so to say and they also went further to look into the data to realize that in some universities even and in some colleges of education and poly techchnics there are more staff than even uh student applicants uh for that particular year."
These developments, he said, appear to have prompted the government to reconsider the continued expansion of tertiary institutions.
"So that now raised a lot of concern uh from government that they needed to do uh something regarding halting the proliferation of these tertiary institutions."
He added that academic unions have for years argued that the government should prioritise strengthening existing institutions rather than establishing new ones.
"And this is not to say that unions over the years uh have been clamoring that the existing institutions needed more attention and why was government was busy establishing new uh institutions in the middle of strikes when uh unions were clamoring for more funding into existing institutions and then government was busy establishing new institutions."
While acknowledging the policy direction, Ishaku questioned whether the six-year moratorium was supported by a clear strategy.
"Now what I'm not sure about federal government's um decision to impose the moratorum last year sometime in August the moratorium was imposed on establishment of federal universities I mean federal tertiary institutions but um um this time around I think the moratorium is imposed uh on establishment of new private tertiary institutions."
He said it remains unclear whether the decision was driven by a long-term policy framework or by an immediate reaction to recent data.
"So what I'm not sure is whether this is like a knee-jerk reaction and a fire brigade approach by the federal government in imposing this moratorum or whether there is quite a strategy behind the imposition of the moratorum and whether there is also an empirical uh uh data behind the 6 year 7-year moratorum and what it is set to achieve at the end of the year."
Despite these uncertainties, he suggested that the government still has an opportunity to engage stakeholders and develop a clearer reform plan.
"However, it's not too late. Um I think government can still convene uh stakeholder engagement to uh brainstorm and determine and actually roll out uh um a quantitative um uh strategy uh going forward in terms of what we need in terms of the number of these institutions and also what is the growing trend even globally."
Ishaku argued that the country must also reassess the role of university education in addressing employment challenges.
"Do we even need more degrees? You know, do we need more degrees in this country or is it skills that uh that we need?"
He warned that many graduates currently face difficulties in securing employment, raising concerns about the alignment between academic training and labour market needs.
"So, um we have come to a situation whereby I think now we have a glitch. Many students have degrees but they are not employed and employers can tell you that the students are not employable uh most of them."
According to him, future reforms should focus not only on academic knowledge but also on the development of practical and soft skills that improve graduates’ employability.
"So that now informs the need that government should look inward into funding more existing tertiary institutions not only on the uh uh hard skills being taught uh in these universities and others but also on soft skills that can improve and enhance the employability uh of our graduates."
He also cautioned that halting the creation of new institutions alone may not solve the broader structural challenges within the education system.
"Yes, government can impose moratorum on establishing new institutions. But we want to bring to the attention of the federal government that what is happening presently in the system is that it is the existing universities that are also expanding within themselves."
Ishaku said universities are increasingly introducing new programmes, departments and faculties without adequate resources.
"expanding in the way of creating new courses, new departments, splitting faculties into new faculties and I think that is a bubble that may in the end also uh cause some uh implosion within existing system."
He stressed that the creation of academic programmes should be tied to available infrastructure and qualified personnel.
"It's also another thing to also uh freeze um establishing of new programs without financial backing without manpower for those programs but leaving universities on their own to behave as if they are competing with each other running every course."
According to him, institutions should focus on areas where they possess strengths rather than attempting to replicate the same programmes across the system.
"All universities must not run the same programs."
He illustrated the issue by referring to the restructuring of some academic departments.
"if I can tell you now for uh as an example, there is a university in this country that the traditional department of mass communication for example uh has gone ahead to be splitted into about four or five different degree programs."
He said such changes often result in additional administrative and infrastructure demands.
"So not only degree programs but departments department of journalism, department of new media, department of this or that and all these if you know are all traditional mass communication."
Instead of expanding administrative structures, he suggested that universities could introduce specialised degree options within existing departments.
"Government should start enforcing that if a university senate sees the need to create a program then it should be a degree program not a department."
He explained that such programmes could operate within a single department while allowing students to specialise in particular areas.
"It can be on it can be housed under one department but running different degree programs and then you can now have various majors that students can now go ahead to graduate with rather than new department that will need a new head of department, new set of lecturers, new infrastructure, new faculty of this and that."
Ishaku concluded by reiterating concerns about the broader trend of expansion within the tertiary system.
"So I think government should look into that and we are much concerned as a union regarding that uh proliferation aspect as well."