COMMODITIZATION OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA AND PAUCITY OF RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES

Commoditization is the process by which goods that has economic value are distinguishable in terms of attributes (uniqueness or brand) end up becoming simple in the eyes of the market. Commoditization is the movement of a market from differentiated to undifferentiated price competition and from monopolistic to perfect competition. The advent of structural adjustment programme in most developing countries including Nigeria marked an era of rolling back of the state and withdrawals of the state from the provision of social services. The Breton wood institution encouraged governments to scale down funding, which had implication of not only lowering the standard, but also gave rise to the emergence of private schools at all strata of education including the tertiary level. The past two decades has seen sweeping changes in the higher education space, the most significant of which has been the increasing competition in the tertiary marketplace. The proliferation of private universities has changed the landscape notwithstanding that prospective candidates in the country still cannot be fully absorbed into the institutions. Though the number of institutions has ballooned, a cursory look indicates that the programmes offered by these institutions are market driven. Most of these universities only offer courses that appeals to the market and most programme that has little market effect and undersubscribed are shutdown. Courses such as History, philosophy, counseling, French, Anthropology among others are either not offered in most private schools or closed down. Even the public funded institutions, have had cause to combine certain courses to attract subscribers and applicants. The questions that arise therefore are; what does commoditization mean for higher education? How can institutions compete in the commoditized higher education space? What impact is the proliferation of private universities having on the higher education and research? How does commoditization impact research and development? The paper examines such issues and proffers solution to the challenges resulting from that development.