Understanding the Higher Education Market in Africa

Emmanuel Mogaji, Felix Maringe, Robert Ebo Hinson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367344382
• eBook ISBN: 9781000048247
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book offers theoretical and practical insights into the marketing of higher education in Africa. It explores the key players, challenges and policies affecting higher education across the continent; their marketing strategies and the students' selection process.

While acknowledging the vast size of the continent, this book aims to provide an understanding of the dynamics of higher education in Africa. This book recognises the private and government involvement in higher education provision and students and staff as stakeholders in the marketisation process. Strategic efforts are directed by universities to attract prospective students. This book further addresses issues such as the responses of higher education sectors to the notion of markets and marketing; consumerism and competition in higher education in Africa; conceptions of the commodification of higher education in Africa; and the dominance of Western epistemologies and their influence in transforming higher education sectors. Students as consumers in increasingly marketised higher education sectors in Africa are also discussed.

Though primarily for marketing students and academic researchers, the book's feature of blended theoretical and practical knowledge means that it will also be of interest to marketing practitioners and university managers.

Part 1

Private and government involvement

2 Public vs private universities in Nigeria

Market dynamics perspective

Sunday Olaleye, Dandison Ukpabi and Emmanuel Mogaji

Introduction

There is a need for a conceptual paper on the market dynamics perspective of the Nigerian public and private universities due to scarce literature in developing countries of Africa. The price signal influences the two-tier universities’ growth. This signal has a different impact on its stakeholders.

Education is vital for national development. It is a human right which unlocks individual potential and benefits all of society, powering sustainable development (DFID, 2018). Developing countries are making considerable strides in expanding schooling and developing their educational policy (Mordaunt, 2018). The African Higher Education Summit has put action plans in place to dramatically increase higher education participation across the continent over the next 50 years, which will hopefully have enrolment ratios rise to 50% by 2063. This target calls for a tremendous increase in African investment in higher education, more significant research spending, active links to African scholars in the diaspora, and more effective coordination of planning and delivery of higher education programmes at the institutional, national, and continental levels (ICEF, 2015).

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with over 180 million, is making an effort to improve its educational system, albeit it is a challenge. Despite inadequate funding for the existing tertiary institutions, the government has created ten new federal institutions that are part of the over 80 that the National Assembly is currently working to establish (Krishi, 2018). The demand for higher education is very high, yet the supply is inadequate. The public universities are not meeting these demands, and this has led to high numbers of private universities aspiring to meet this market’s demands. The current supply of universities and the demand for higher education present a market dynamic in the higher education system of Nigeria.

This market dynamic influences the supply of universities in Nigeria and highlights the need for more university spaces to meet the needs of prospective students. The government universities are not enough; even the ones available are not well funded and equipped to meet the growing needs. The justification for establishing private universities in Nigeria to complement public universities is asymmetrical. The coexistence of public and private universities is moot. The outcome of the long debate on the quality of tertiary education is unjustifiable, as many intending students desire to be educated in the diaspora and are unable to derive any satisfaction in the existing universities in Nigeria.

The relationship between supply and demand is also considered a dominant force behind setting the prices in the higher education market in Nigeria. This dynamic also impacts price and the expectations of higher educational institutions (HEI) and students. It determines the pricing structure and how students will react to the fees. Some parents prefer to send their children to universities in neighbouring African countries, or even to Europe and America. On the basis of prior research, it has been found that Nigerian students go to Ghana to study, and Nigeria, therefore, loses revenue annually (Hope, 2018). While recognising that a single private university cannot affect the market significantly, corporate marketing is changing and becoming very dynamic. Likewise, market dynamics influence the demand of prospective students, especially those who have not been able to secure admission to government institutions.

Despite the progressive studies on public and private universities in Nigeria, there is a gap in research explaining how the price signals are created when there is a continual change in the supply and demand of public and private university services in their education market. This study intends to examine the market dynamics of public and private universities in Nigeria and aims to know how the price signal affects the Nigerian public and private universities market and the distinct factors that differentiate the public from private universities in the Nigerian context.

The methodology is divided into six parts. First, the study conducted a literature review to identify the external and internal influences of public and private universities in Nigeria. Second, it conducted a reflective analysis to add influences not found in the literature. Third, the research critically analysed the identified influences and grouped them into demand and supply attributes. Fourth, the study integrated the market dynamics factors into a conceptual model reflecting the external and internal factors. Fifth, the study analysed the role of price signal in the overall model. Finally, the research proposed some recommendations for public and private universities practice.

The chapter presents an understanding of the higher education market – the Nigeria higher education system – followed by an understating of the private and public universities in Nigeria. The demand attributes of the market dynamics are also discussed, specifically from the standpoints of students and parents making their decision based on the fees, student satisfaction, experience, and identity of the providers. Likewise, the supply attributes of the market, highlighting the role of the universities, are presented. Additionally, supply affected by the location, fees, service quality, and completion is analysed. The chapter concludes with implications on brand identity, marketing communications, and improving students’ learning experience. The present study contributes to and broadens the knowledge of higher education in Nigeria, explicitly highlighting the market dynamics caused by the demand and supply of higher education. Likewise, it offers practical implications for administrators, managers and researchers with interest in higher education marketing.

Nigeria higher education system

Nigeria is a country of rich ethnocultural diversity, with over 350 distinct ethnic groups and over 500 indigenous languages (NERDC, 2013). It is the most populous country in Africa, and with this comes the challenges of educating her citizens. There have often been mixed reactions concerning the issue of university education in Nigeria and how this can be compared to what is obtainable in other countries of the world (Iruonagbe et al., 2015). A status report on higher education in Nigeria argued that political interventions in the higher education system, under a series of military governments, have distorted and constrained the development of higher education in Nigeria (Saint et al., 2003).

The National Policy on Education (NPE) in Nigeria provides national guidelines for the effective administration, management, and implementation of education at all tiers of government (NERDC, 2013). The policy acknowledges the advantage of ample conditional provision and legislative support for stakeholders to participate in the delivery of education at all levels, allowing private sector, individuals, civil society organisation (CSO), and non-governmental organisation to be very active in the sector (NERDC, 2013). The education system is structured into:

• Early child (aged 0–4) development.
• Basic education for children aged 5–15 years, which includes one year of pre-primary, six years of primary education, and three years of junior secondary education.
• Post-basic education of three years in secondary schools and technical colleges.
• Tertiary education provided in colleges of education, monotechnics, polytechnics, and the universities.

Nigeria’s university education system includes both public and private universities. Public universities are run by both federal and state governments. There are currently 170 approved universities in Nigeria, comprising 43 federal universities, 48 state universities, and 79 private universities (NUC, 2019). Until 1999, the establishment, ownership, management, and funding of universities and all tertiary educational institutions was the exclusive reserve of federal, regional, and state governments (Akpotu & Akpochafo, 2009).

The National Universities Commission of Nigeria is a government agency saddled with the responsibility of promoting quality higher education in Nigeria. The Commission is also responsible for approving all academic programmes run in Nigerian universities and the establishment of all HEIs offering degree programmes. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is the Nigerian central admissions agency. It conducts the entrance examination – Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) – for prospective undergraduates into Nigerian universities.

As education has become an essential factor for economic development in the 21st century (Saint et al., 2003), an instrument for national development and social change which is vital for the promotion of a progressive country (NERDC, 2013), challenges have arisen. Nigeria is struggling to meet the needs of prospective students craving for education, especially at the tertiary level. Admission into universities in Nigeria is critical as there is an ever-increasing demand for university space (Adeyemi, 2001). Over two million prospective students are registered for UTME in an academic year, all competing for 750,000 places, potentially leaving over a million qualified college-age Nigerians without a post-secondary place (Parr, 2018).

Despite this massive deficit, it was reported that the registrar/chief executive of JAMB, Professor Is’haq Oloyede, said that the available space in universities across the country is large enough to accommodate the highest percentage of admission seekers. The registrar further suggests that establishing more universities, especially by the states, will, in the long run, suffer perennial underfunding (Olanrewaju, 2018). This, however, seems not to hinder the growth of private universities in the country which allows for competition between the public and the private universities (Ajayi & Ekundayo, 2008).

Public universities in Nigeria

Public universities in Nigeria were established and managed by the government. The federal government owns some of these public universities, while the state governments own others. The public universities have continually dominated the higher education landscape in Nigeria for several decades. The government traditionally categorises its federal universities into groups, based on their dates of establishment, as follows (Saint et al., 2003): 1st Generation (Benin, Ibadan, Ile-Ife, Lagos, Nsukka, Zaria), 2nd Generation (Calabar, Ilorin, Jos, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, Sokoto), and 3rd Generation (Abeokuta, Abuja, Akure, Akwa, Bauchi, Makurdi, Minna, Owerri, Umudike, Uyo, Yola).

Unlike private universities, public universities are well located across the country; each state in the country can boast of a university. Public universities are cheaper, affordable for students across the country, and have courses which may not be available in private universities. There is often a sense of pride in attending a public university, as students feel they are matured to deal with the challenges that come their way, unlike those in private schools. The social life at the public universities, unlike the strict environment in private universities, has often attracted prospectiv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• Part 1 Private and government involvement
• Part 2 Students and staff as stakeholders
• Part 3 Positioning for added advantage
• Part 4 Marketing strategies for universities
• Conclusion
• Index