Issues to Urgently Address in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

Globally, tertiary institutions have been actively involved in society development especially in the areas of manpower development and community services provision. In Nigeria, tertiary institutions is contributing to the socio-economic and technological advancement. Recently, it appears the three major functions of tertiary institutions in Nigeria are been affected by the some internal and external problems that is calling for an immediately actions. The paper discussed some current issues to be addressed in the various tertiary institutions in Nigeria in order to keep them effective. The theoretical framework adopted for this paper was the General System Theory that was developed by David Easton in 1953. The paper used secondary data. The secondary data were collected from print materials and online publications. The paper identified the following pressing issues that is militating against effective operation of tertiary institutions in Nigeria to include; poor funding and faulty funding model, inadequate academic staff, infrastructure facilities deficit, political influence, proliferation of tertiary institutions, brain-drain, autonomy, poor remuneration and weak industry-academia collaboration. Based on the issues identified, the paper recommended the following; reform in the funding model of tertiary institutions, employment of adequate academic staff, provision of more infrastructure facilities, establishment of department in federal ministry of education to handle issues of  tertiary institutions establishment by drawing of a national plan for tertiary institutions establishment across Nigeria, increment in the salaries of academic staff and grant of autonomy to tertiary institutions.