…Poor teaching quality, lack of tools responsible
Nigeria has the highest number of universities in Africa but lags peers in academic quality and institutional reputation, BusinessDay has gathered.
The nation boasts of 288 universities, according to the National Universities Commission (NUC), higher than Tunisia’s 204, Morocco’s 153, Kenya’s 129, South Africa’s 123 and Algeria’s 104.
However, no Nigerian university was in the top 10 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) 2025 ranking, based on metrics such as academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, international student ratio, among others.
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Top 10 universities in Africa, according to the QS ranking, were: University of Cape Town, University of Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University, University of Johannesburg, all in South Africa; Cairo University, Egypt; University of Pretoria, South Africa; American University in Cairo, Egypt; Ain Shams University, Egypt; University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa; and Université de Tunis El Manar, Tunisia.
Similarly, Uniranks, one of the world’s largest university rankings, recently named the 2025 Africa’s best universities. The universities included: University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of Witwatersrand, University of Kwazulu-Natal, all of South Africa, and Cairo University, Egypt. The rankings were based on verified data, academic performance, and impact across the continent, the organisation said.
None of Nigeria’s universities was in the top 20. Only University of Lagos (24th in Africa), University of Nigeria Nsukka (28th) and Obafemi Awolowo University (29th) made the list.
More universities, less learning
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently approved the establishment of nine new private universities amid the 288 registered universities. These included 63 federal, 63 state, and 149 private universities. In spite of the long list of universities in Nigeria, quality remains an issue.
Key issues
Poor quality of teaching is a major problem in Nigerian universities. In some public universities, students go through Computer Science classes without computers. Also, some of the classes are handled by lecturers without adequate exposure.
“In the UK, some of the lecturers of finance and accounting work as accounting or finance consultants in big firms. They work in private firms even though they are lecturers. What that does is that it gives the lecturers hands-on experience, which in turn helps to prepare students for future jobs,” said a Lagos-based accountant, who pleaded anonymity.
Nigeria’s universities are hit by poor funding. Research shows that public universities got less than 60 percent of their budgetary requirements in 2023. Lecturers are hardly sponsored for overseas studies or opportunities and some institutions lack science tools required by students.
Noel Saliu, deputy executive secretary (Academics), NUC, warned earlier that insufficient funding was a significant barrier to the effective growth and development of the nation’s higher education system.
But lack of accountability is also a major problem. A report by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, which examined 64 universities across the country, revealed that none published budgets, audited accounts or visitation panel reports on their websites.
The report also found that no university disclosed details of internally generated revenue (IGR) or how the funds were spent, and that requests for financial information under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act were either ignored or denied outright.
According to Gift Osikoya, a teacher, “A deeper reflection reveals that Nigeria’s challenge in higher education lies not in the number of universities but in the quality of teaching, research, and infrastructure.”
Osikoya said even with the high number of schools, Nigeria still performs poorly when compared with its peers such as South Africa, Egypt and Kenya, which have fewer universities but rank higher in global indices.
This disparity, she said, is due to systemic issues that remain unresolved such as underfunding, obsolete facilities, inadequate research investment and persistent brain drain of highly skilled academics.
“Expanding the number of universities without tackling these fundamental problems risks multiplying mediocrity rather than promoting excellence.
“Many existing universities are under-equipped to meet global standards, and the creation of new ones may only stretch limited resources further.
“While private universities may, in some cases, provide better facilities and stable academic calendars, their impact will be limited if the broader ecosystem remains weak,” Osikoya noted.
What’s the way forward
She said Nigeria must strengthen the existing institutions through increased funding, infrastructural renewal, and faculty development.
“Having new private universities is not bad, but without addressing the deep-rooted challenges confronting the higher education sector, Nigeria risks expanding access at the expense of quality.
“The federal government should focus on consolidating and reforming the existing universities, as this is the surest path towards achieving a globally competitive and sustainable higher education system,” she added.
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Busayo Aderounmu, a senior lecturer at Covenant University, said there is a need to invest in the quality of the learning output.
Isaiah Ogundele, an educationist, said having many universities is not a crime but emphasis should be on quality of learning outcomes.
“We need more private and public universities for the development of our nation, but such an arrangement should be well-tailored to enhance human capital development, producing problem solvers and not graduates who are looking for white-collar jobs that do not exist,” he said.
