Reforming Education through User Fees: Ability and Willingness to Pay For University Education in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

This study explored user fees as a policy option in transforming university system in Calabar-Nigeria and its implications for ability and willingness to pay for the cost of schooling. The study was expected to provide a baseline information on the policy-planning process of user fees in solving revenue and financing problems of the university system for efficiency. This survey inferential design study had two research questions and one hypothesis that guide the investigation. With the use of stratified random sampling technique, 460 parents were drawn from the parents’ population in the two universities’ locations. Data collection was carried out using a researchers’ constructed instrument called “Household Reaction To Cost of Schooling Questionnaire (HRTCOSQ)”. Descriptive statistics (using tables and percentages) and Ordinary Least Square Regression Analysis were used to statistically analyze data collected for the study. Results obtained revealed that households in Calabar were able and willing to pay for the cost of schooling. The low income group households were willing to pay more for the male than the female children. The desirability of the user fees as a policy option depended on the ability and willingness of the household to pay for the cost of schooling. It is therefore recommended that the user fees should be adopted by university’s administration to raise revenue while government should provide scholarship to brilliant students from low-income households to cushion effects for equity.

Keywords: Household, user fees, cost, reforming, university education.