Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences: Home

Abstract:
The financial problem in Nigerian higher educational institutions, which started in the late 1970s, became more severe in the 1990s and remains a major problem today. The arbitrary interference in university governance by military governments and their authoritarian handling of university matters ? often without regard to constituted statutory structures of the system also aggravated the problems of university autonomy and the proper functioning of the institutions which made ASUU/NASU embark on several national strikes. The study aimed at examining the influence of strike on the choice of household demand for higher education in Oyo State. It also examined other determinant of the demand for higher education. The study utilized the binary choice estimation technique in analysing primary data derived from 2000 copies of the questionnaire administered in year 2004 among households in nine local governments in Oyo State which were selected, using two-stage stratified sampling procedure. Descriptive statistic and chi-square was used to explain the effect of strike on household choice of higher education in Oyo State, while probit regression model was used to estimate the determinants of the demand for higher education specified in the utility maximization model, involving demographic, family, school and trigger (i.e. strike actions in public institutions) variables. The result of the study shows that 80% of households sent their children to private higher institutions because of strike in public institutions irrespective of the price/cost. Household size, per capita household expenditure, school fees, father?s educational attainment, gender, household location, and strike actions are significant at 5%. However, strike action, gender, and household expenditure have positive coefficients of 0.39, 0.40, and 0.50 with households preferring to send their female children to private institutions than males. In conclusion, strike action in public institutions along with other variables influence the choice of higher education. Therefore, frequent strikes in public institutions could be reduced with the introduction of fees to generate private funds to finance higher education, encouragement of public-private partnership to provide infrastructural facilities and government quick response to various agitations of workers in public higher institutions

Keywords: strike actions, higher educational institutions, household demand, household expenditure, household choice.

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