Tertiary Education Trust Fund interventions and sustainable development goals of Olabisi Onabanjo University

Johnson Olufemi Fejoh

doi:10.29114/ajtuv.vol4.iss2.190

Abstract

Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) was established by Federal Government of Nigeria to tackle the problem of inadequate funding of tertiary institutions which had been a major obstacle to the achievement of sustainable developments in these institutions. This study therefore examined the impact of TETFUND interventions on sustainable development goals (research and academic growth and continuous provision of instructional materials and laboratory equipment) of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted and qualitative data were collected using a questionnaire to elicit information from a total number of 250 respondents from total population of 1,723 staff of the university. From the sample size, 128 (56%) were male while 122 (54%) were female. Data collected were analyzed using regression analysis to test all the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that TETFUND interventions have significant impact on sustainable development goals of Olabisi Onabanjo University. It is therefore recommended that Federal Government should step up efforts to ensure that tertiary institutions (federal and state owned) are adequately funded through TETFUND and also do more in the area of human resource development for the research and academic growth of these institutions.

Highlights

Education is widely accepted as a major tool for promoting socio-economic, political and cultural development in Nigeria. Asiyai (2015) sees education as a critical tool through which citizens of any nation acquire the right knowledge, skills, values, attributes and attitudes for peaceful living within the society. Idialu & Idialu (2012) opine that the challenges confronting higher education in Nigeria include financing and funding the growth of education, management challenges and so on but the challenges dealing worst blow on higher education in Nigeria is underfunding
Ho1: There is no significant impact of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) interventions on research and academic growth in Olabisi Onabanjo University
The findings are in agreement with Bamiro (2012) and Yakubu (2011) who affirmed that TETFUND interventions have been positive in the area of capacity building through which from 2008 till date some junior academics have been sponsored with TETFUND both abroad and in Nigerian University in various areas spanning Medicine, Law Sciences, Technology, and other discipline

Summary

Introduction

Education is widely accepted as a major tool for promoting socio-economic, political and cultural development in Nigeria. Asiyai (2015) sees education as a critical tool through which citizens of any nation acquire the right knowledge, skills, values, attributes and attitudes for peaceful living within the society. Idialu & Idialu (2012) opine that the challenges confronting higher education in Nigeria include financing and funding the growth of education, management challenges and so on but the challenges dealing worst blow on higher education in Nigeria is underfunding. Education is widely accepted as a major tool for promoting socio-economic, political and cultural development in Nigeria. Nwangu (2005) states that the foundation is weak and frail when education is not well funded and the products of such foundation are weak intellectuals. When there were few higher institutions in Nigeria, government was saddled with the burden of funding institutions and students’ enrollment in Nigeria. This increase has gotten to the point where government openly acknowledged that it can no longer be saddled with the responsibility of funding institutions alone. The issue is of funding but sustainability of the existing institutions, quality of education and infrastructures

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion