Abstract

In any economy, human capital development is a function of the quality of its educational system, particularly at the tertiary level. Consequently, investment in human capital through qualitative education programmes is worthwhile especially where the potentials for tertiary admission are in their hundreds of thousands who could become liability to the nation, if not catered for. The geometrical expansion of potentials for tertiary admission has outstripped the capabilities of the nation’s tertiary institutions due to limitations beyond their control. This paper attempts an empirical analysis of the impact of a decade of private sector initiative in tertiary education in Nigeria on human capital development. For the analysis, a multiple regression model is specified based on perceived functional relationship between education and human capital development. Data considered relevant indicators of private sector tertiary education initiative and human capital development were elicited and used to estimate and evaluate the model via the ordinary least squares (OLS) techniques and relevant statistics. The result shows that the sector’s initiative is yet to make significant contribution to human capital development, though it possesses great potentials for significant positive impact in no distant future subject to appropriate strategic approaches. The paper identifies private tertiary institutions as a veritable factor in human development issues in Nigeria, consequently, the paper recommends, among others, that the private tertiary institutions should adopt piece meal approach in their expansion and diversification processes into the core human resource need of the country – science and technology-oriented programmes