A Critical Examination of Accountability Mechanisms in Nigerian Higher Education Governance: Towards a Reform Agenda

This study conducts a critical examination of the accountability mechanisms operating within Nigerian higher education governance and develops a reform agenda grounded in empirical evidence and comparative international experience. Accountability in higher education governance encompasses the systems and processes through which institutions answer to government, students, employers, and the public for the quality, efficiency, and equity of their operations. In Nigeria, chronic failures of accountability at multiple levels, including the NUC, university governing councils, and faculty management structures, have contributed to declining institutional performance and eroding public trust. The study employs a multi-phase qualitative design. Phase one involves comparative documentary analysis of accountability frameworks across 20 Nigerian universities and five international comparison cases drawn from South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, India, and the United Kingdom. Phase two involves 55 semi-structured interviews with vice chancellors, registrars, NUC officials, student union leaders, and governance researchers. Data are analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis and comparative institutional analysis. The study draws on Principal-Agent Theory, the New Public Governance Framework, and Comparative Higher Education Theory. Findings reveal that Nigerian higher education accountability is structurally characterised by information asymmetry, compliance ritualism, political capture, and absent performance consequences, producing accountability architectures that are formally elaborate but substantively hollow. The study makes an original theoretical contribution through the Hollow Accountability Model of Nigerian higher education, and provides a detailed reform agenda addressing regulatory, legislative, and institutional dimensions. Keywords: accountability, higher education governance, reform, Nigeria, institutional analysis.