Private Tertiary Institutions Research Articles

Prevalence of sexual activity and family-planning use among undergraduates in Southwest Nigeria

Objective To assess the prevalence of sexual activity and family-planning use among undergraduates in a private tertiary institution in Nigeria.Methods A cross-sectional survey of 283 undergraduate students.Results Out of 283 students, 245 (86.6%) are sexually active in the last month. Out of these 245, 219 (89%) are currently using a family-planning method. In the study population, the percentages of awareness, ever use, and current users are 89%, 77%, and 75%, respectively. The most commonly known, ever used, and currently used contraceptive is condom followed in descending order by calendar method, oral pills, coitus interruptus, injectable contraception, emergency contraception, intrauterine contraceptive device, and diaphragm. Unmarried students and male gender show statistical significance with condom use. The reasons for preferring the current contraceptive method, among 219 current users, include safety, cost, ready availability, and partner's preference, among others. Most of the nonusers gave no reason for a failure to use a contraceptive, but others felt that contraceptives are dangerous, while a minority were ignorant of any method. Though many use a condom, this use is inconsistent.Conclusion There is a high level of sexual activity among these undergraduates. Many are aware of family planning, and the condom is the most commonly known and used method, though not consistently. Reproductive-health education should be promoted among youths in Nigeria.

Regulation of Tertiary Education

he provision of tertiary education is regarded by many as being vital to both the achievement of economic success and greater social equity. In recent years the trend in most countries has been to grant government education providers with greater institutional autonomy but at the same time subject them, and private providers, to formal regulation. The impact of this regulation to both government and private providers is little understood by participants and in most countries is still in an evolutionary stage. The collapse in 2003 in New Zealand of two major private tertiary education providers (PTEs) — Modern Age Institute of Learning and Carich Limited — brought into question in that country the manner in which PTEs are regulated. In New Zealand PTEs make up a significant proportion of the tertiary education sector (in July 2003 there were 49,897 students formally enrolled in PTEs or around 15 per cent of formal enrolments; 337,004; Table 1). In New Zealand PTEs are able to offer certificate, diploma and degree level qualifications; both developed by themselves and by the national accreditation authority. In providing these services they must submit themselves to a national regulatory regime that is designed to enforce quality standards; not just of the PTEs but also of a number of government tertiary education providers (GTEs). In New Zealand GTEs include the universities, polytechnics, institutes of technology, colleges of education and wananga. In this paper the term GTE is not applied to the universities but only to the polytechnics, colleges of education and wananga because these institutions fall under the same regulatory regime as the PTEs, which the universities do not. The purpose of this paper is to identify the economic rationale for the regulation of PTEs and discuss whether New Zealand’s regulation of this sector effectively achieves economically rational outcomes. Internationally many countries are opening up their tertiary education sectors to increasing levels of competition; both between government-owned institutions and between private institutions and the government sector. At the same time the creation and operation of formal regulation of the tertiary education sector has become a matter of contention. The regulatory dilemmas facing the New Zealand Government provides a good example of some of the problems faced by governments when they attempt to create a regulatory framework for the tertiary education sector. In the first section the general background to the New Zealand tertiary sector is provided. In the following section a description of the economic rationale for the regulation of the tertiary education sector is given, and in the next section the responsibilities of the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA), which enforces regulation is explained. A discussion of whether NZQA’s regulations Malcolm Abbott is Dean of the School of International Studies at AIS St Helens, a private tertiary education institution in Auckland, New Zealand. T

Desperately seeking science (and technology?)

This paper describes sources of science and technology education in a metropolitan area. The sources are classified into three groups: government or semigovernment, private organisations and tertiary institutions. Issues relating to these sources include the adquacy of the provision of information for interested adults, the ‘user pays’ principle in relation to some of these sources and the notion of ‘public understanding of science’.