This study examined the relationship between educational returns and demand for university education in Rivers State Nigeria. In order to achieve the purpose of this study two objectives and two hypotheses were raise and formulated to guide the study. The research design adopted for the study was correlational design. The population of the study was 6144 final year students in tertiary education in Rivers State. A sample size of 614 final year students was used for this study. The sample was selected through the proportionate stratified random sampling technique, which represented 10 percent of the total population of the final year students from the three university in Rivers State .The instruments used in collecting data for the study which contain 25 items questionnaires tagged " Educational Returns and Demand for University Education Questionnaire " (ERDUEQ). The instruments were developed by the researcher, face validation and the reliability coefficient of 0.81was obtained using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Simple linear regression was used to answer the research questions and test for hypotheses respectively at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between personal benefits, family benefits, social benefits, economic benefits and demand for university education in Rivers State. Also a significant relationship existed between family benefits and demand for tertiary education in Rivers State. It was concluded that an individual who demand university education derived personal and economic benefits. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that home management and entrepreneurship education and skills acquisition centers should be introduced in our tertiary institutions across the state to be self-reliant on graduation.

Private economic benefit education exerts great influence on the choice decision of candidates seeking admission to higher education institutions, particularly universities, polytechnics and colleges of Education. In Nigeria, statistics place more emphasis on the provision and demand for university, colleges of education than polytechnic education. This study was designed to investigate private economic benefit of polytechnic education in the SouthWest , Nigeria to determine the influence private economic benefit on demand for polytechnic education. This study adopted descriptive survey research design. Stratified random sampling technique with equal allocation was used to select 1,064 HND students from federal polytechnic Ado, Ado-Ekiti, Osun state polytechnic Iree and Lagos city polytechnic Lagos state from the faculties of financial management/commerce and communication science, natural/applied sciences and engineering and 101 and 63 HND and ND holders from public and organised private sectors in the south west, Nigeria were randomly selected through research instrument titled 'Private Costs of Polytechnic Education Inventory' (PCPEI)and Workers Age-Education-Life-Earnings Inventory (WAELEI). In Southwestern Nigeria, average private cost of acquiring polytechnic education per session was N 267,956.05; average private economic benefit was N 38.071, 399.40 while N 1,424,458.60.10 was the post-tax earnings differentials between an HND and OND holders. Governments and private owners of institutions should introduce measures that will reduce private cost of polytechnic education. This will increase the private economic benefits of polytechnic education.

Higher education in Nigeria is critically constrained with financing resulting in low quality. The key research issue of the present study is to examine financing of higher education in Nigeria paying particular attention to access, quality of graduate output, and internal and external efficiency of the system. The main objective of the paper is to critically examine the adequacy and sources of funding of higher education in Nigeria based on a standard criteria as well as comparing the unit cost of graduate production across the higher education institutions. The study is based on secondary data. A cross sectional sample survey representing 76 faculties selected through a stratified sampling method to represent the three institutional structures of the higher education system in Nigeria was used. In addition to descriptive statistics used a simple linear regression analysis was also implore. The results indicates a low investment to education, also there exist a funding gap in the system. Even for the same type of institution unit cost vary enormously between HEIs. In general the unit cost of higher education in Nigeria is low in comparison to other African countries. In the light of the above findings Nigeria authority require critical revisiting of the current policy of financing higher education

Employment prospects of Nigerian undergraduates remain questionable while demand for university education is on the increase. This study, adopted descriptive research design. A sample of 380 students of public universities in Osun State, drawn from 36,333 undergraduates of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and Osun State University, Osogbo, were the respondents using multi-stage sampling procedure. A Students’ Employment Prospects and Demand for University Education Questionnaire (SEP-DUEQ) was designed to elicit information from respondents. The result identified decision to become entrepreneur 266(70.9%), acquiring knowledge of intended profession 262(69.8%), earning high salary after graduation 251(66.9%), among others as reasons for demanding university education. The result also showed that employment prospects available to students after graduation include entrepreneurial skills to create job 298(78.5%), sufficient job opportunity in private-sector organisations 252(67.2%) ...

This research work examined the cost benefits of Ph. D in Nigeria. It was a descriptive design of a survey type. The population of the study was all the lecturers and Ph. students of the University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, 150 Lecturers and students were selected through simple random sampling and techniques. Two sets of research instruments were used one for the lecturers and the second one for the students currently undergoing Ph. . The validity of the instruments was done with the use of content, construct and face . Descriptive analysis was used to the data collected. The results showed that the cost of Ph. was higher compare to lower degrees, the prospect cadre for Ph. was high and that the financial and other benefits of Ph.D holders were higher than other degrees.

This study investigated the viability of investment in university education in southwestern Nigeria among beneficiaries from 1983 to 2016, using the Net Present Value (NPV). Descriptive survey design was adopted. Stratified random technique with equal allocation was used to select Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Osun State University, Osogbo (OSUO) and Wesley University of Science and Technology, Ondo (WUSTO). Proportional to size stratified technique was used to select 403, 297 and 40 students from the faculties/colleges of Management Sciences, Natural and Applied Science and Engineering of the FUNAAB, OSUO and WUSTO. Further, 212 randomly selected employee respondents consisting of 170 university graduates, and 42 secondary school certificate holders from the public and organized private sectors in southwestern Nigeria were also used. Private Costs of University Education (PCUEI) and Workers’ Age-Education-Life-Earnings (WAELEI). Inventories were used for data collection. The 2016 average bond rate (13.05%) and average lending rate (22.5%) were used as discounting rates to generate NPVs. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Annual private costs of university education was N(345,592.56 88,211.24), while average private economic benefits (Education-Life-Earnings) was N48,278,548.20. The 2016 average bond rate and lending rate yielded N3,687,655.74 and N866,170.03 NPVs respectively. Private returns to investment in university education were more viable than that of secondary education. Government should improve returns to investment in secondary education through employment opportunities.

The paper looks at higher education in Nigeria which encompasses a range of about 128 institutions, and it is largely provided by both public and private sector. The impact of these higher education institutions has not keep abreast with development in the labor market. The system has suffered a lot from limited accessibility, low quality, and relevance and inadequate resources to meet emerging challenges. The funding of higher education institutions in Nigeria during the last 54 years of its existence as a sovereign nation suggests that there exists a chronic under-funding of the system, both at the public and the private level. The constant demand of the citizenry of the country to have access to higher education also continues to create more pressure to expand the capacity of higher education in Nigeria. In the context of high or proportionate of population growth in Nigeria in which the majority are youth, the present number of higher education institutions is rather small to provide equitable access to higher education institutions in Nigeria. The serious issue of inadequate financing of the higher education institutions in Nigeria and the proclivity to make adequate expansion is chanced upon with several challenges as identified in the main text of this paper.