Education is the surest path of the good life and upliftment of the human person cum
society. In order to get the quality of education this country needs, funding is of
paramount importance, especially at the tertiary level and it has been a big challenge
to both development and developing countries of the world, such as Nigeria. This study
looked at the challenges in funding tertiary education in Nigeria. In trying to unravel
these challenges, the researcher looked at the sources of funds for tertiary education
which were categorized into internal and external sources. Due to political
interference and instability, tertiary education has faced a number of challenges in its
funding, some of them include: inaccurate statistical data, population, explosion,
indiscipline, corrupt leadership and diversion of funds etc. based on these, it was
recommended among other that any course of action adopted by the government
should be completed by the government without abandonment, key officials in tertiary
institutions and their supervisory bodies should not embezzle funds meant for
education.
