Implementing government policies in university education: Challenges faced by Nigerian Universities’ principal officers

Abstract

This paper discusses challenges faced by Nigerian universities’ principal officers when implementing government policies on university education. The paper adopts a qualitative approach towards unveiling the causal mechanisms that affect the implementation of government policies in Nigeria, using principal officers’ knowledge of the phenomenon. Twenty-one principal officers were involved in the study. A purposive sampling method was adopted for the selection of these principal officers. The finding revealed five major mechanisms that challenge the implementation of government policies in the context of Nigerian universities. The findings reveal that many competing voices operate in different parts of the sector. This affects the structure, causing the mechanism to function wrongly, with a lack of common platforms from which to understand government policies.

Keywords: Government policy, implementation, university, principal officers, Nigeria.