THE IMPACT OF TUITION FEES ON STUDENTS ENROLLMENT IN UNIVERSITY

1.1 Introduction

Tuition fee generally refers to a mandatory charge levied upon all students covering some portion of the general underlying costs of instruction. Tuition increases have become all too common as states have cut spending to public institutions and private schools face declining enrollments. Fees increase has been a serious hindrance to access to quality education in Nigeria at the turn of the century. According to the demand law, when tuition fees become more expensive in a university the number of students that applied to the university would decrease. Demand function is a function that describes how much of a good will be purchased at alternative prices of that good and related goods, alternative income levels, and alternative values of other variables affecting demand (Baye & Prince, 2016).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Over the course of the past few decades, the cost of the higher education at public colleges and universities has risen rapidly. Adjusting for the availability of state and federal financial aid, growth in the cost of higher education has outpaced inflation and even health care. The rise in tuition has been driven by a number of factors, including a pervasive trend in the use of cost offsetting in public higher education (John Stone, 2004), and real and even nominal declines in appropriations due to state revenue short falls (Koshal & Koshal, 2000; Rizzoo & Ehrenberg, 2003).

Tertiary education can be defined as the level of education acquired after secondary education in higher institutions of learning such as Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of education and other institutions of higher learning offering correspondence courses, diplomas and certificates. Famade, Omiyale and Adebola (2015) citing Ahmed (2011) they opined that the challenges confronting tertiary institutions in Nigeria include financing and funding, the growth of private tertiary institutions, management challenges and so on but the challenge dealing the worst deathblow is that of underfunding of tertiary institutions.

The Federal Government of Nigeria is increasingly finding it difficult to meet the high cost of funding tertiary education in Nigeria and if tertiary institutions in the country are to survive, there is an urgent need to seek out means of improving their funding. It is instructive to note that education is a right and not a privilege and if this is to become a reality in the Nigerian context then education needs to be subsidized and better funded at the tertiary level. In the face of the declining financial resource allocation to the education sector, there is the need for alternative channels of funding which will ensure qualitative education and graduates from Nigerian education system.

In Nigeria, the federal universities still maintain a ‘no tuition fees’ policy. However, the state and private universities charge tuition fees which have increased tremendously in recent times. Due to limited available capacity and resources at the disposal of the institutions and government the federal universities have not been able to admit all qualified students. A substantial percentage of these students are admitted into the universities which charge tuition fess/other charges. This is because these institutions operate in an economy characterized by high inflation rates and are profit oriented. The resultant effect has been a decline in university enrolment by poor households.

According to Johnstone (2007) and Sanyal and Martins (2006) The tuition fee aspect of the educational financing reforms amongst others on the need to improve public finances as placed a significant pressure on household finance through increase in out-of-pocket expenditure and created financial barriers among households. Developing a better qualified and employable individual by running programs that provides students with tools for entering the workplace ensuring demonstrate capacity for innovation and technology in the institutions for facility learning (Federal Ministry of Education, 2012). As a result, this study also wants examine the cause of tuition fees on student’s enrolments in Nigerian universities. It will help a great deal for students to proffer solutions that will reduce the effects of tuition fees on student’s enrolments in Al-Hikmah University Ilorin, Kwara State.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Impact of Tuition Fees on Students Enrollment in University.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that critics of the tuition fees enrolment of students have increased in the demand for and enrolment in university education. According to Aina, Oyetakin and Oshun (2009), the monumental increase in student enrollment at the primary and secondary levels of education have consequently put a lot of economic, political and social pressure on the tertiary education level with the resultant financial consequences for student’s government and economy generally.

In the same vein, studies in the socio-economic background of households in over 70% are poor and on 29% of families can live on one dollar (N157.00) or above a day, which implies that the social-economic hardship experience by the parents deprives any of access to the university education as many cannot afford to pay their children’s school fees thereby not addressing the issue of access and equity. (Ukertor, 2010; Ehiametalor, 2005 and Williams 2004), also in the area of human development, Nigeria is ranked 168th in the world (Roa, 2008).

However, Nwangwu (2001) states that when parents and their children exercise their right to choose the types of higher education to pursue, it should be understood that higher education is not free or universal or compulsory, they have the duty to provide financial support for such students.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Impact of Tuition Fees on Students Enrollment in University. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the trend of students’ enrollment and tuition fees in area under study;
2. To investigate the effect of increased tuition fees/school charges on the student enrolment; and
3. To estimate the price elasticity of the tuition fees on student’s enrollment in area under study.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• To what extent do tuition fees determine/affect student’s enrolment?
• What is the trend of student’s enrollment and tuition fees in area under study?
• What are the effects of increase in tuition fees on student enrolment in area under study?
• What is the role government playing in reducing the tuition fees of such Universities?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Tuition fees increase has no significant impact on students’ enrolment in area under study.
• H1: Tuition fees increase has significant impact on students’ enrolment in area under study.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Increased tuition fees have no significant influence on students’ enrolment in area under study.
• H1: Increased tuition fees have significant influence on students’ enrolment in area under study

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1.7 Significance of Study

This study will be of great importance to all academic institutions and the area under study in particular, in implementing appropriate students’ enrollment strategies through a better understanding of the sensitivity of University education demand. Academic leaders need to understand the responsiveness of demand to tuition fees in their institutions to help them in planning and implementing correct enrolment strategies.

Another motivation for this study is the dependence of tuition revenue on enrollment. There is need to understand the importance of the demand for higher education when proposing or implementing a policy to increased tuition fees. Also, this study can help higher education decision makers in managing unexpected effects of soaring tuition fees, and in managing enrolment and tuition revenues.

Therefore, considering the importance of tuition elasticity of demand is essential in managing enrolment in academic institutions. It could be argued that using the concept of elasticity is useful in evaluating enrolment policies. In fact, elasticity is an important evaluation tool that may be used by government and academic decision makers.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Impact of Tuition Fees on Students Enrollment in University using Imo State University (IMSU) in Owerri, Imo State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Tuition Fee: It refers to a mandatory charge levied upon all students (and/or their parents) covering some portion of the general underlying costs of instruction.