Speaker
Description
Onyegbuchulem, B. O.
Dr. B. U. Nzeribe State Polytechnic Awo-Omamma, Imo State, Nigeria
bokey@imopoly.net
Track: Sustainability and the Future
Higher education institutions globally while driving innovation face high pressure in order to achieve financial sustainability amid decline in government funding. However, studies using Ordinary Least Squares regression, have shown uniform effects of funding and innovation strategies across all institutions. This study used quantile regression to examines the financial and sustainable model for higher education innovation in order to capture differential effects across the performance distribution of Nigerian universities from 2014 to 2024. Specifically, the study investigates how funding diversity, cost efficiency, and innovation adoption influence financial sustainability at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th quantiles. the source of data is from NUC statistical digests and audited financial statements of 60 federal, state, and private universities. The findings show significant asymmetry in the determinants of financial sustainability. Government grants and TETFund allocations exert strong positive effects at lower quantiles Q10–Q25, but become statistically insignificant for top-tier institutions at Q90. This implies that, internally generated revenue and cost efficiency ratios are the major determinants of sustainability for high-performing universities. Innovation adoption indicates a U-shaped effect, significantly enhancing sustainability only for institutions at the median and upper quantiles. The study therefor suggests that a one-fits-all funding policy is effective for Nigerian higher Institutions.