The history of university education in Nigeria started with the
Elliot Commission of 1943, which led to the establishment of University
College Ibadan (UCI) in 1948. UCI was an affiliate of the University of
London (Ike, 1976). According to Ibukun (1997), the UCI was saddled with
a number of problems at inception ranging from rigid constitutional
provisions, poor staffing, and low enrolment to the high dropout rate.
In April 1959, the Federal Government commissioned an inquiry
(the Ashby Commission) to advise it 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 (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 were Universities of Calabar, Florin, 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
University 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
discussed academic autonomy of the University system while the Section
70 specifically addressed the optimum contributions required of
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 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 focused on University research and stated 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 to rapid and
unplanned growth (Okebukola, 2005).
Theoretical Framework
This study adopted suitable theory to explain certain existing
relationships between labour market demand and graduate employability.
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 by imparting useful life
skills on the individuals. One of the proponents of this theory, Becker
(1962; 1964), believed that the height of workforce production have
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.
Based upon the
work of Schultz (1971), human capital theory rests on the assumption
that formal education is highly instrumental and even necessary to
improve the production capacity of a population. The human capital
theorists argued that an educated population is a productive population
(Olaniyan, Okemakinde, 2008). Ayeni (2003) on the other hand agreed that
education as an investment on human capital improves the status of
beneficiaries, create job security for trainees and attract monetary and
non-monetary benefits. Therefore, the spending on human capital
(workforce) is a worthwhile and productive investment similar to
investment in nation’s physical assets (Olaniyan & Okemakinde,
2008).
The rationality behind investment in human capital as emphasised by Babalola (2003) are based on the following that:
1.
the new generation must be given the appropriate parts of the knowledge
which have already been accumulated by previous generations;
2. new
generation should be taught how existing knowledge should be used to
develop new products, to introduce new the processes and production
methods and social services;
3. people must be encouraged to develop entirely new ideas, products, processes and methods through creative approaches.
Education and training is the most important components of investing in
human capital and that income of a better educated and trained person
is usually higher than overage wage rate (Becker, 1962). There are three
types of training or education which are closely related to the return
rate and human capital (Dubra, 2010): these are:
a. education at
school – to gain knowledge in the institution that concentrates its
activity on training process and offers education as a product.
b. training at work place – to gain new skills and to improve the gained skills at work place:
c. General training – skills that can be used at any enterprise;
d. Specific training – it makes no impact on the employee’s productivity if the employee works for another enterprise.
e. other knowledge – any other information obtained by an individual to improve own economic situation.
However, Babalola (2003) further explained that formal education
has the potential for stimulating economic growth and development or
economic progress because of the inherent potential of the former to
increase human capital productivity. The human capital model of Robert
(1991) advocated education as a tool for improving human capital,
stimulating labour productivity and boosting the levels of technology
across the globe.
The education factor in increasing
productivity has never been disputable, especially in modern situation
of technical and scientific progress (Gods, 2008). Labour productivity
is related to specific work skills and attitude of an individual;
however education level is one of the main productivity indicators. The
employers of labour perceive the education level of employees as a
productivity signal – the higher is the education level, the higher is
the productivity. Besides education level, there are other productivity
signals, such as educational institution, educational programmes and
even the country where the education has been obtained.
Therefore, the major task in the process of human capital development is
to provide the educational system that would meet the changing labour
market requirements so that the educational system would be able to
produce labour force corresponding to the needs of the future economy
development tendencies and orientation towards knowledge based economy.
This theory is very important and relevant to the current situation of
developing nations like Nigeria where demand for labour is low due to
the belief of some employers of labour that graduates are poorly trained
and unemployable because they could not meet up with labour market
requirements. Human capital development theory, therefore, provides the
premise upon which this study seek to investigate labour market demand
and university graduate employability skills in North-west, Nigeria.
Concept of Labour Market Demand
The labour force includes
all people, male and female, who represent the available supply of
labour for the production of economic goods and services, whether they
are already working or looking for work. The term labour includes
members of workforce, housewives, students who have reached working age,
but are still full-time learners, and also individuals who are
reluctant to work for any reason, despite their ability to engage in
economic activity. Folayan (2006) defined manpower as the energies,
skills and knowledge of people which potentially can or should be
applied to the production of goods and services. Manpower is also seen
as people, humanity and society with all its aspirations, needs and
capacities. Robert (2001) believed that manpower available to an
organization is a form of human capital highly valuable assets that can
increase in overtime. According to Griffin (2002), manpower is critical
for effective organizational function. They are available means of
improving productivity which turns out to be a potential. Babalola
(2006) described manpower as the quantity of people and their skill
content acquired through education, training and experience. In
Economics, manpower is the managerial, scientific, engineering,
technical, craftsmanship and other skill which are developed and
employed in creating, designing and developing organizations, managing
and operating productive and service enterprises and economic
institutions (Babalola, 2006). Demand for labour represents the other
side of the market, or the human efforts required by employers from
public and private institutions for certain benefits.
