TERTIARY EDUCATION FUNDING, EDUCATION QUALITY CONTROL, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA
Clement Ikuba Alegu , Philip Aondoakaa Onov , Isaac Terhemen Nungul and Emmanuel Sunday Effiong
Volume 14 Issue 2
Abstract
Pragmatic efforts have been made over the years towards the development of tertiary education in Nigeria, culminating in the establishment of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). These efforts expected improve educational quality and spur economic growth. However, the nexus between tertiary education financing, educational quality assurance and economic growth is scarcely empirically investigated in Nigeria, the task which the study is has undertaken. The study adopted ex-post facto research design. Data were sourced from the World Bank, Federal Ministry of Education website, the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, and the National Bureau of Statistics. Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) model was used for estimation of data. The study found that TETFUND annual disbursements to tertiary institutions has a non-significant positive long-run effect on economic growth (p, 0.0865>0.05), rate of accredited programmes in tertiary institutions has negative significant long-run effect on economic growth (p, 0.0237<0.05), and inflation has a negative non-significant long-run effect on GDP (p, 0.1265>0.05) in Nigeria. The study therefore, concluded that although TETFUND annual disbursements to tertiary institutions have contributed positively to economic growth in Nigeria. However, the increase in rate of accredited programmes in tertiary institutions in Nigeria is yet reflect the pace of economic growth. Study recommendations included among others that the federal government should collaborate with the private sector and international donor agencies to make adequate financial provisions for the development of tertiary education sector in Nigeria. Keywords: TETFUND Disbursements, Quality Assurance, Tertiary Institutions, Finance, Economic Growth
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