*Photo: President Bola Tinubu*
Introduction
When the Federal Government recently announced a seven-year moratorium on establishing new federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, it marked a policy shift that many education stakeholders had been advocating for, albeit for years. For over a decade, Nigeria’s higher education landscape has suffered from unchecked expansion without corresponding investment in infrastructure, staffing, research facilities, or curriculum innovation.
Political considerations, rather than strategic planning, often dictated the creation of new institutions, resulting in a proliferation of poorly subscribed schools and overstretched resources.
While the moratorium is a welcome step, it comes years late. Had such a pause been instituted earlier, Nigeria could have consolidated and strengthened its existing institutions, creating globally competitive centres of excellence linked directly to industry needs. This policy now offers a second chance, a window to rethink, restructure, and retool our universities and polytechnics into engines of national development.
The State of Nigeria’s Higher Education: Quantity Over Quality
Nigeria currently has 72 federal universities, 42 federal polytechnics, and 28 federal colleges of education, in addition to hundreds of state-owned and private tertiary institutions. Yet, despite this proliferation, the nation’s higher education sector faces chronic under-enrolment in many institutions, crumbling infrastructure, and a widening disconnect between academic output and industry demands.
The statistics are stark: 199 universities received fewer than 100 applications via JAMB in 2024, with 34 recording zero applications. And out of 295 polytechnics, many had fewer than 99 applicants, while 64 colleges of education had no applications at all.
In some institutions, the ratio of staff to students is absurdly imbalanced, for instance, 1,200 staff members serving fewer than 800 students. This represents not just waste but systemic inefficiency, and it erodes the credibility of Nigerian degrees internationally.
The truth is clear: Nigeria does not have an access problem anymore; it has a quality problem.
Why the Moratorium is Necessary — Even if Late
The Federal Government’s decision to pause the establishment of new tertiary institutions addresses several urgent realities:
1. Underutilised Capacity
Many universities and polytechnics operate far below capacity. Instead of spreading thin resources across more campuses, consolidating investments into existing institutions will ensure fuller enrolment and better utilisation of infrastructure.
2. Overstretched Resources
Building new universities is capital-intensive but maintaining them at global standards is even more demanding. With limited budgetary allocations for education (hovering between 5–8% of the national budget in recent years), spreading resources over an ever-growing number of campuses guarantees declining quality.
3. Academic Quality and Global Reputation
Unchecked proliferation without quality control leads to poorly prepared graduates, undermining Nigeria’s international academic reputation. Countries like Ghana and Kenya have faced similar challenges but have responded by strengthening accreditation systems before expansion.
4. Policy Alignment
Global best practice shows that higher education expansion works best when tied to a national skills strategy, not political expediency. Nations such as Germany, Singapore, and South Korea expanded their tertiary education in tandem with workforce planning, industrial policy, and technological advancement — a balance Nigeria has historically lacked.
The Danger of Political Expansionism in Education
Over the past two decades, new universities have often been announced as political trophies — a means of appeasing constituencies or rewarding loyalists. Rarely were they backed by comprehensive feasibility studies, sustainable funding plans, or industry partnerships.
This politicisation of higher education has led to firstly, duplicated programs across universities with no specialisation focus. Secondly, poor faculty recruitment due to lack of competitive salaries and research grants, and finally, neglect of polytechnics and TVET in favour of “prestige” university status.
The result? A surplus of paper qualifications and a deficit of job-ready skills.
A Second Chance: Using the Moratorium to Build Centres of Excellence
The seven-year pause should not be a passive freeze. It must be used as an active reform window to modernise and reposition Nigeria’s higher education system. This requires strategic focus in three main areas:
1. Consolidation and Infrastructure Upgrade
Existing universities and polytechnics should be upgraded with modern laboratories, lecture halls, hostels, libraries, and ICT infrastructure. Global examples show that consolidated excellence trumps scattered mediocrity. Finland, for instance, merged several institutions to create the Aalto University, which quickly rose in global rankings through pooled resources and interdisciplinary collaboration.
2. Specialisation and Centres of Excellence
Nigeria should designate select institutions as specialised hubs for priority sectors such as artificial intelligence and data science, renewable energy and environmental engineering, agricultural biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and mechatronics, healthcare innovation, and biomedical engineering.
These centres should receive targeted funding, attract international faculty, and partner with leading global universities and industries. South Korea’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a model of how specialisation can drive technological advancement and economic growth.
3. Linking Academia to Industry for Employability
The most critical reform is bridging the chasm between academic training and industry requirements. Nigeria must institutionalise first, compulsory industry internships and apprenticeships for students. Secondly, co-created curricula with employers in fast-growing sectors. Thirdly, industry-funded research chairs in universities and polytechnics. Fourthly, technology transfer offices are responsible for commercialising research innovations.
Germany’s dual education system, where students split time between classroom learning and paid work placements, has been instrumental in keeping youth unemployment low while supplying industries with skilled workers.
The Role of Polytechnics and TVET: The Neglected Backbone
Polytechnics and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) are indispensable to Nigeria’s industrial future. Countries with advanced manufacturing bases, such as Germany, Japan, and China, rely heavily on robust TVET systems to produce technicians, technologists, and skilled artisans. In 2014, a significant reform was carried out by China when about 600 universities were converted to polytechnics to reduce excessive academic theory that doesn’t guarantee jobs.
Nigeria’s neglect of polytechnics in favour of “university prestige” has deepened the skills gap, especially when one considers the recent avalanche of conversions of some polytechnics to universities across the country. The moratorium offers a perfect opportunity to reinvest in polytechnic infrastructure, elevate the status of Higher National Diploma (HND) qualifications, embed industry partnerships into every program, and create clear progression routes from vocational training to advanced degrees.
By empowering polytechnics, Nigeria can produce the middle-level manpower critical for industrialisation, a segment that universities alone cannot supply.
Global Lessons in Strategic Higher Education Reform
Singapore: Carefully planned expansions, strong polytechnic system, and integration with economic strategy.
Finland: Merged institutions to create multidisciplinary universities capable of competing globally.
Germany: Balanced universities with applied science institutions and vocational schools, tied to industrial needs.
China: Linked higher education growth to manufacturing and technology sectors, ensuring graduates feed directly into economic priorities.
These countries show that quality, specialisation, and industry alignment are the real drivers of higher education success — not simply the number of campuses.
Turning Policy into Action: Recommendations for Nigeria
I have the following suggestions for the government, educational administrators, and policymakers to ensure this reset is not a waste or an exercise in futility.
Audit Existing Institutions
A comprehensive national audit should be conducted to evaluate the true state of federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. This assessment must cover infrastructure quality, faculty strength, research productivity, governance systems, and graduate employability rates. The findings would help policymakers identify underperforming institutions, prioritise resource allocation, and create targeted improvement plans aligned with national development goals.
Targeted Funding and Performance Contracts
Federal funding should be tied to clear, measurable outcomes rather than allocated equally regardless of performance. Institutions meeting agreed benchmarks, such as higher graduate employment rates, significant research publications, and strong industry linkages, should receive additional resources. Performance contracts will hold leadership accountable, incentivising innovation, efficiency, and tangible contributions to economic and social development.
Specialisation Mandate
Each university and polytechnic should be assigned a clearly defined area of specialisation that reflects national needs and institutional strengths. This will reduce program duplication, promote academic depth, and encourage the development of unique centres of excellence. Specialisation ensures institutions focus resources where they can have the greatest impact, producing graduates with niche expertise highly valued by employers.
Industry-Academia Councils
National and regional industry-academia councils should be established to bridge the gap between the classroom and the workplace. Comprising business leaders, policymakers, and academic experts, these councils would co-design curricula, create internship pipelines, and identify future skill needs. This collaboration would ensure graduates are trained in line with evolving market demands, increasing their employability and industry readiness.
Global Partnerships
Nigeria’s institutions should actively pursue twinning arrangements and joint programs with world-class universities and polytechnics abroad. Such partnerships can facilitate faculty exchanges, joint research projects, and curriculum modernisation. They expose students and staff to global best practices, cutting-edge technologies, and diverse perspectives, helping to raise educational standards and enhancing the international reputation of Nigeria’s higher education system.
TVET Priority Policy
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) should be elevated to the same level of prestige and policy support as university education. This means equal funding, modern facilities, competitive faculty salaries, and clear career progression for graduates. By positioning TVET as a respected and viable pathway, Nigeria can address its skills shortage and strengthen its industrial and manufacturing sectors.
Conclusion
The Federal Government’s seven-year moratorium is a rare opportunity, a pause button that could reset Nigeria’s higher education trajectory and must not be wasted on the altar of criticism. But it will only succeed if used proactively to consolidate resources, modernise curricula, encourage industry linkages, and create globally competitive centres of excellence.
This should have been done a decade ago, but better late than never. The challenge now is to resist the political temptation to announce new institutions for short-term gains and instead commit to building fewer, stronger, and more relevant universities and polytechnics.
If Nigeria seizes this moment, the moratorium will not be remembered as a freeze but as the turning point when the nation’s higher education system finally began producing the skilled workforce capable of transforming its economic destiny.
***Prof. Sarumi is the Chief Strategic Officer, LMS DT Consulting, Faculty, Prowess University, US, and ICLED Business School, and writes from Lagos, Nigeria. He is also a consultant in TVET and indigenous education systems, affiliated with the Global Adaptive Apprenticeship Model (GAAM) research consortium. Tel. 234 803 304 1421, Email: leadershipmgtservice@gmail.com.