Nigeria, March 28 -- The Nigerian public tertiary education system is now in crisis due to problems including overcrowding of lecture halls, insufficient financing, outdated courses, and regular strikes. The quality of education is declining as a result of this crisis; graduates are not sufficiently ready for a work market growingly competitive. This means that the academic education students acquire does not fit the demands of the corporate world, which fuels the high unemployment rate among graduates. Employers are perennially becoming unhappy that many degree holders must undergo significant retraining before becoming active workforce members.

Under these conditions, private universities have become appealing substitutes for public on...