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By ‘Femi D. Ojumu |
22 November 2023 |
3:44 am
From humble origins, over many centuries, striking accomplishments from these higher learning institutions (universities!) have helped to transform human lives and society in multiple disciplines. These traverse aeronautics, artificial intelligence, astronomy, bio-medicine, engineering, geography; jurisprudence, mathematics, natural sciences, pharmaceutics, technology and more.
Contextually, the University of al-Qarawiyyin, Fez, Morocco, reputed to be the oldest university in the world according to UNESCO, was founded in 857 CE. The West African Sankore University was founded in 12 A.D; and the modern day Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea had its origins in the 14th Century.
In Europe, Bologna University was founded in 1088; Oxford University was established in 1096, Cambridge followed in 1209, whilst the University of Paris (La Sorbonne) was birthed in 1257. Now then, the historical perspective is one thing. Consistent groundbreaking innovations and value-added contributions to human and socio-economic development, plus rational thought, are of an entirely different order.
The ancient Middle Eastern polymath, Muhammad-ibn-Musa Al- Khwarizmi, c 780- c 850, headed the Baghdad House of Wisdom “Bayt al-Hikmah”, university, around 820 CE. He generated seminal findings notably “Al Jabr”, which the ancient Greco Romans termed “algebra” His algebraic tour de force, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, established, ab initio, the methodological resolution of linear and quadratic equations. He is revered as the originator of al-jabr “completion”, from which algebra is derived, and from which modern algorithms are derived.
The genius and Zurich University alumnus, Albert Einstein’s pivotal theory of relativity, circa 1915, critically analysed the consequences of observational alterations and the effect of relative motion, in spacetime between the observer and the observed in non-accelerating system. The theory also evaluates motion and the effect of gravitational force on natural phenomena. In recognition of his phenomenal accomplishments, he was to receive the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Till today, that theory applies in astronomy and satellite-based measurements including a range of global positioning systems applicable on the average portable device.
The mathematical genius, Professor Chike Obi (1921-2008), was the first Nigerian to obtain a PhD in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950. He was to later receive the Sigvard Eklund Prize for original work in differential equation from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. Another Nigerian intellectual prodigy, Professor Ayodele Awojobi (1937-1984), who having obtained a PhD in mechanical engineering in 1966 from the prestigious Imperial College London; became the first African ever, to earn a Doctor of Science degree in mechanical engineering for his research in Vibration, at the same institution.
More recently, Dr Oluyinka Olutoye who gained his medical degree at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and a PhD in anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA, meritoriously earned his credentials as a world-renowned neonatal surgeon. In 2016, he led a team of 21 doctors to perform an extra-ordinary operation on a 23-week-old baby at a Texas hospital.
The procedure, entailed the removal of the foetus from the mother’s womb, a delicate operation to excise a tumour on the foetus’ tailbone and then re-attaching the foetus to the mother’s womb unharmed. Never before had this procedure been carried out anywhere in the world! Olutoye is a Professor and the E. Thomas Boles Jr. Chair of Paediatric Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Self-evidently, the cited dramatis personae are all products of eminent universities, a point which crystallises, the value of university ofeducation. Notwithstanding, the tertiary education funding model, counterbalanced with a rising demand for university education globally, exponential population growth, problematic national debts; the inherent contestability for resource allocation in national budgets as between competing health, social care, defence, infrastructure, transport, primary and secondary education priorities; exercises the attention of today’s treatise.
Simply put, who should pay for university education? Should it be exclusively funded by the state, that is, taxpayers? If university education is exclusively funded by taxpayers, wherein lies the return on investment for the state; in extant cascading situations where, computer science, engineering, medical, natural sciences, technology and other graduates, from the Global South flee, in droves, to the Global North; for better terms and conditions of service under the auspices of the “jáápá” syndrome? Should it be wholly funded by individuals? Is a hybrid mechanism, one where the state and individuals proportionately share the financial burden of university education the optimum model? Do student loans constitute the panacea? What, if any role, should the state have in running universities in 2023 and beyond?
These are tough policy questions which defy simplistic responses on three main counts. First, each country’s challenges are unique to its peculiar circumstances and to that extent, the relevant policy responses must be nuanced and adaptable to each. There is no one-size-fits-all solution! Second, in emancipated democracies, freedom of movement is enshrined in written and ‘unwritten’ constitutional frameworks. Illustratively, that means, a person, whose education has been wholly funded by the Nigerian state can, upon graduation, and relevant training, relocate to Canada -subject qualifying criteria- and continue life as a physician on better terms and conditions of service.
Whilst this scenario invokes an ethical dilemma as to the rightness of Canada depriving Nigeria of a medical doctor, trained by Nigerian taxpayers, when Nigeria’s healthcare system is bursting at the seams; concurrently, the said physician cannot be compelled to remain in Nigeria, because he/she exercises the right to move to which ever country will pay for his expertise. Third, aside from the latter pecuniary advantage rationale, the natural human desire for an enhanced quality of life is, upon a necessarily subjective analysis, incontestable.
In the UK, tuition fees were introduced in September 1998 and are capped at £9,250 for UK and Irish students. Exceptions apply to the devolved nations of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Foreign students pay astronomically higher tuition fees and the government has no quibbles about the discriminatory tuition fees based on nationality in favour of home students. All home students are entitled to student loans which is not payable until they earn, post-graduation, a baseline salary of £21,000 per annum.
The logic is that the burden of university education, should be on those who benefit the most, that is the students and the mechanisms should be in place for them to attend university irrespective of financial capacity.
A hybrid model of university funding applies in USA where institutions receive funding from federal allocations, endowments, states and tuition fees. According to collegedata.com, for the 2022-2023 academic year, average tuition and related fees was $39,400 at private universities, $10,940 at public universities (for in-state residents) and $28,240 (out-of-state residents).
Like the UK, the U.S. operates a student loans scheme where they repay their loans upon graduation. As at June 2022, student loan debt exceeded $1.7 trillion whilst the average student loan debt is $37,014. The economic logic is simply that students must make a contribution to their tertiary education and, should not, gain at the taxpayers’ expense, what is essentially a free choice.
Afterall, the likes of Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, which directly/indirectly employs thousands of people achieved global recognition without any university degree! Nonetheless, private endowments are a vital mechanism which underpin university funding. Harvard University, Princeton University and University of Texas, brigaded, have endowments exceeding $95 billion.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of Chinese universities are publicly owned given its socialist political ideology although funding allocations, necessarily vary between institutions. The material point to note is that the country prioritises university education which has catalysed socio-economic and scientific expansion. According to the Chinese Education Department, higher education is “bringing up large scale of advanced talents and experts for the construction of socialist modernisation”.
If further proof was needed, as at 2021, over 3000 universities existed in the country with enrolment numbers exceeding 240 million citizens. Therefore, an inference of a probable positive correlation between China’s university educated working population and its status as the world’s economic powerhouse cannot, be far-fetched.
The foregoing raises important policy lessons for Nigeria. University education should remain a national priority and adequate support ought to be given to students to meet the costs of tuition. It helps that these options are being woven into national policy on students’ loans administration. More directly, it is recommended that:
The national government completely grants universities financial and operational autonomy albeit maintaining strategic policy oversight in the curriculum and key appointments.
Internally generated revenue by universities should be retained by universities for research and development. The policy objective is for healthy competition for the brightest and best academics and students. More qualitatively appreciable best-in-class private universities are created. Intelligent and smart tax incentives are established for greater private endowments.
Also, existing universities optimise their research and development capabilities by collaborating with leading Ivy League and Russell Group universities on a mutually beneficial basis.
Finally, the development of the COVID-19 virus vaccine, which saved humanity from the greatest existential threat in the 21st Century, was the result of effective collaborations between the world’s leading academics, biosciences firms, research institutions, technology firms and universities. There is absolutely no reason why brilliant Nigerian academics and forward-thinking universities cannot operate in that space.
Whilst not the panacea to wider national challenges, it is envisaged that with the right visionary leadership and will, the implementation of these proposals can be effected in the medium term and perhaps help reverse the trends of punishing strikes, which augurs poorly for staff, students and economic development.
In a world of transformative change and volatilities, ginormous advances in artificial intelligence, technology and upended work models, clearly, business as usual, is not a rational policy!
Ojumu is the Principal Partner at Balliol Myers LP, a firm of Lagos-based legal practitioners and author of The Dynamic Intersections of Economics, Foreign Relations, Jurisprudence and National Development.
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