Ekpenyong E. Ekanem, Ph.D
Abstract
Private sector participation in funding is a veritable source of contribution to University Education. Hence, this research aimed at examining sustainability of private sector participation in funding university education in Cross River State of Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population included 942 Heads of Departments and Heads of Programmes in two public universities located in Cross River State of Nigeria. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 250 respondents from the universities studied. The instrument designated ‘Sustainability of Private Sector Participation in Funding Questionnaire (SPSPFQ)’ was designed to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated and had reliability co-efficient of 0.862. Data collected were analyzed using frequency count and percentage score. The study revealed that sustainability of private sector participation supported funding for some specific university physical projects. Private sector funding impacted weakly on access to university education and was also inefficient on capacity building needs of universities. Developing quality of human resource depended on ecosystem income flows of private sector participation. It was concluded that inadequate private sector participation created funding gap that hindered qualitative university education and development indicators in the society. It was recommended among others that university management should give attention to proper financial planning for transformation of university education in Cross River State, Nigeria.