Tertiary education, as defined by the National Policy on Education, is education provided beyond secondary school at Nigeria's universities, colleges of education, and polytechnics. The federal and state governments, corporations, and people all own these organizations. Regardless of ownership, certain Federal authorities have been appointed to oversee, monitor, and accredit courses in these schools. The National Universities Commission (Nuc) is in charge of universities, while the National Board for Technical Education (Nbtc) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (Ncce) are in charge of polytechnics and colleges of education, respectively. While the Yaba Higher College, Nigeria's oldest postsecondary school, was established seventy-five years ago, the university college in Ibadan was established in 1948, and the first Advanced Teachers College began teacher training in 1962. So the youngest of the three major kinds of higher education is 45 years old.

The National Policy on Universal Basic Education was born as a result of Nigeria's signing of international agreements on education for all. With this, all school-aged children are required to attend school, and the number of progressive students in both primary and secondary schools has risen. According to Rui Yang (2002), Chinese higher education has grown significantly in the last decade, with gross enrollment rates rising from 3.4 percent in 1990 to 7.2 percent in 1995 and 11% in 2000. One of China's provinces, Jiangsu, is anticipated to be the first to go from elite to mainstream tertiary education. Between 1975 and 2000, the percentage of adults with a postsecondary education almost doubled in Oecd nations, rising from 22% to 41%.

According to Ocho (2006), most universities and polytechnics, particularly those at the federal and state levels, enroll much more students than there are competent lecturers, classrooms, labs, tables, reading materials, and equipment. Carrying capacity, defined as the greatest number of students an institution can support for quality education based on available human and material resources, has been exceeded on numerous occasions. Obe (2007) stated that 18 of the 25 federally controlled colleges had overenrolled, and 13 of the 19 state universities had overenrolled, while just one of the seven private institutions had overenrolled.
Federal and state universities each have five of the top ten overcrowded institutions, according to the study. With special reference to the University of Lagos, the student population has grown through time as seen below:
1962-130, 1970-2528, 1980 12,365, 1980-12,365, 1990 12,647, 2000 37,683, 2006 37,840, 1962-130, 1970-2528, 1980 12,365, 1980-12,365, 1990 12,647, 2000 37,683, 2006 37,840. A state-owned institution was discovered to have an excess of 24,628 students. In polytechnics and colleges of education, the tendency of massification is no different.

Significant gains in enrollment, according to Unesco (1999), are a good indication of access democratization. Higher education is not just accessible to individuals who fit the traditional definition of student, i.e. a person aged 18 to 24 who has joined straight from secondary school or shortly afterwards, but it is also open to older students who want to continue their education in this era of "lifelong learning." There are many more pupils of various ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and academic abilities. As a result, massification is seen positively since it demonstrates the democratization of access and is no longer elitist. It also leads to increased human capital creation, which provides nations with the skilled people resources they need to develop. On a worldwide scale, massification seems to be essential in this knowledge economy, where the two traditional pillars of a successful institution have been replaced by four, which include not just excellent teaching and research, but also the capacity to innovate and share information. Because of the widespread availability and desire for higher education, creativity has become more essential. In order to attract the finest students, schools are getting more innovative and competitive. Students often have a broad range of institutions and programs to select from. This might be helpful: Project Works For Students

Increased enrollment in basic education as a result of the Education for All movement, as well as free and compulsory basic education in most African nations, has resulted in significant gains in primary and secondary enrolment and completion rates. For example, between 1999 and 2004, secondary enrollment rose by approximately 43% across Africa, with over 31 million pupils enrolled (Unesco, 2007). These secondary school graduates then sought entrance to higher institutions. However, the growth in demand outstripped the capacity of the institutions, and by the late 1980s, African higher education was said to be in crisis (Ajayi et al, 2006). This is because, despite the fact that the higher education sector was rapidly growing and improving, the majority of African nations were not stable enough to accommodate the rapid rise in enrollment. “Studies have connected the crisis to the political and socio-economic contortions that Africa has gone through in the last two decades,” writes Obanya (2004). Armed conflicts, civil wars, economic repressions, and bad administration (due to either autocratic or corrupt leadership) plagued the continent on all sides, making it very difficult for the continent to establish itself in the fast-growing field of higher education.