In April 1959, the Federal Government commissioned an inquiry (the Ashby Commission) on the higher education needs of the country for its first two decades. Before the submission of the report, the Eastern Region government established its own university at Nsukka (the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1960). The implementation of the Ashby Report led to the establishment of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) in 1962 by the Western region, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1962 by the Northern Region and University of Lagos, Lagos in (1962) by the Federal Government. Babalola, Jaiyeoba and Okediran (2007) posited that the University College, Ibadan became a full-fledged university in 1962. This meant that UCI, Ibadan and the University of Lagos became the first two federal universities in Nigeria – the other three remained regional. In 1970, the newly created Midwestern region opted for a university known as University of Benin. The six universities established during this period 1960-1970 are still referred to as first-generation universities. Babalola et al. (2007) remarked that during this period, universities in Nigeria were under the close surveillance of the government. Appointments of lay members of the council and that of the vice-chancellor were politically motivated.
In the third National Development Plan (1975—1980), the government established seven universities instead of the four proposed in the plan and also took over the four regional universities in 1975. They are universities of Calabar, Ilorin, Jos, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Ado Bayero University, Kano - all known as second generation universities. The third-generation universities were established between 1980 and early 1990. They are the Federal Universities of Technology in Owerri, Makurdi, Yola, Akure and Bauchi, while state universities were found in Imo, Ondo, Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Oyo and Cross-River states (Anyamelle, 2004). The fourth-generation universities are those established between 1991 and the present date. They include more state universities, Nigerian open universities and private universities.
Section 69 of the Policy document discusses academic autonomy of the University system, while Section 70 specifically addresses the optimum contributions required of the university education to national development as follows:
1. intensifying and diversifying its programmes for the development of high level manpower within the context of the needs of the nation;
2. making professional course contents reflect our national requirements
3. making all students part of a general programme of all-round improvement in the university education, to offer general study courses as history of ideas, philosophy of knowledge and nationalism
4. making entrepreneurial skills acquisition a requirement for all Nigerian universities
Section 71 also focuses on the university research and states that it should be relevant to the nation’s developmental goals while research and promotion of indigenous knowledge in Nigeria should be pursued. The growth recorded from the design and implementation of this policy document in the expansion of universities in Nigeria is mainly felt in the size rather than the growth and quality assurance. Webometric ranking of Nigerian universities is a good reference point among others. However, there are unresolved problems with the policy implementation for the expansion of the education system towards the social and economic development of the country. Lack of capacity for planning and management, limited financial resources, inadequate information systems and monitoring systems are some of the problems that led the unplanned growth (Okebukola, 2005).
Theoretical Framework
This study adopted suitable theory to explain certain existing relationships between labour market core skills requirements and graduate soft skills competence. The theory used in this study is the Human Capital Development Theory.
Human Capital Development Theory
Human capital theory was propounded by Schultz in 1963. It is an economic theory which is based on the assumption that education or training raises the productivity of workers and useful life skills of the individuals. The notion of human capital first emerged post-World War II when it was suggested that investments in health, training and education could explain levels of economic growth that investment in physical capital could not (Becker, 1962; 1964). One of the proponents of this theory, Becker believed that the height of workforce production has positive relationship with the educational and training form in which the higher the education and training a person gets, the higher the productivity or achievements of an individual.
