THE IMPACT OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES ENROLMENT AND THE UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION IN NIGERIA (1980 – 2014).
Dang, Emmanuel Istifanus
Department of Social Sciences
Faculty of Education, University of Jos-Nigeria
Email: dange@unijos.edu.ng, dangemmanuel@yahoo.com
Abstract: Unemployment is one of the major macroeconomic problems that are bedevilling the Nigerian economy. This paper examines the impact of university’s enrolment on the unemployment situation in Nigeria (1980-2014). The work is centred on finding out the type of relationship that exist between unemployment and university enrolment, and how funding of education affects unemployment situation in Nigeria. Three research questions are raised, to guide the researcher. Secondary data on the Nigerian unemployment rate, Nigerian universities enrolment and percentage of government annual expenditure on education from 1980-2014 have been used for this analysis. The multiple regressions have been adopted for this study. The result of the analysis which was run using E-Views 7 revealed that enrolment has a positive relationship with unemployment in Nigerian with a coefficient of 0.45, which implies that there are loop-holes in the curriculum currently use in our universities, since increased enrolment increases unemployment rate. The relationship between unemployment and government expenditure on education reveals a negative relation with a coefficient of -0.07, which implies that increased education funding decreases unemployment rate. The implication is that an increased education funding by the government, enhance quality in the educational system, which will lead to decrease in the unemployment rate in the economy. Of 0.40 reveals the level of dependence of the dependent variable on the independent variables, which is about 40%. The recommendations put forward among others are that, there is need to review the current university curriculum, to include practical aspect of learning that will encourage creativity among Nigerian graduates; government is encouraged to increase funding of education to add quality to the system, students are encouraged to be very committed to their studies to enable them get the best, while parents are also encouraged to help their children make career choice that reflect their abilities.