There is no doubt that University education is highly prestigious and the most sought after in any nation’s educational system. Hence, the universities are saddled with the onerous task of producing high level manpower to harness the human and material resources for technological, scientific and socio-economic and political development of a nation. In the light of this, higher education leaders have enormous roles to play towards ensuring the achievement of university goals and objectives. To this end, this paper examines the dialectics of challenges for higher education leaders in Nigerian Universities and the way out. The paper discusses the concept of higher education, concept of leadership and challenges facing higher education leaders in Nigerian Universities which include lack of adequate fund, political interference, incessant strike action, insecurity, dearth of infrastructural facilities, resistance to change and innovation, unattractive motivational climate, staff discipline and productivity and lack of effective supervision. The paper also highlights some measures to solve these problems. Some of these include provision of adequate fund, effective strategies for conflict management and resolution, promoting safe school initiatives for effective personnel management and promoting teamwork. It concludes that for the universities to achieve their lofty goals, there is the urgent need to create an enabling environment within the University system to allow the higher education leaders to perform their functions as required by law.

Speaker: Olayemi Abiodun-Oyebanji

Published in: London International Conference on Education (LICE-2024)

• Date of Conference: 4-6 November 2024
• DOI: 10.20533/LICE.2024.0003
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-74-7
• Conference Location: St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK