Journal of Education & Social Policy

An Empirical Analysis of Investment and the Determinant of Unit Cost in Nigerian Higher Education System
Sani Ahmed

Abstract
Higher education in Nigeria is critically constrained with financing resulting in low quality. The key research issue of the present study is to examine financing of higher education in Nigeria paying particular attention to access, quality of graduate output, and internal and external efficiency of the system. The main objective of the paper is to critically examine the adequacy and sources of funding of higher education in Nigeria based on a standard criteria as well as comparing the unit cost of graduate production across the higher education institutions. The study is based on secondary data. A cross sectional sample survey representing 76 faculties selected through a stratified sampling method to represent the three institutional structures of the higher education system in Nigeria was used. In addition to descriptive statistics used a simple linear regression analysis was also implore. The results indicates a low investment to education, also there exist a funding gap in the system. Even for the same type of institution unit cost vary enormously between HEIs. In general the unit cost of higher education in Nigeria is low in comparison to other African countries. In the light of the above findings Nigeria authority require critical revisiting of the current policy of financing higher education

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