ENSURING EQUALITY OF ACCESS TO UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN A DEREGULATED EDUCATION SYSTEM

The study focused on determining the equality of access to university education is guaranteed in Nigeria under the current deregulation system. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study using a sample 2,019 respondents (lecturers and students) in public and private universities. A 23-item questionnaire instrument was used for data. The instrument was face validated and trial tested. Data were analysed using mean to answer the research questions and t-test of independent samples to test the null hypotheses. The finding revealed that deregulation of education is then seen as widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The study also revealed that under deregulation of university education, university education ceases to be a public good that should be equally accessible to all, it becomes next to a commodity that could only be accessed based on one's ability to pay. Furthermore, the study showed various ways of improving equal access to university education. Among others, they include; increase in the funding of university education, removal of policies (like the quota system) that hamper equal access, involvement of the private sector in the funding of both public and private universities. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended, inter alia, that government should continually increase funding of university education so as to reduce the burden of fees on parents and thereby increase equal access.