Abstract
Sustainable funding is a contemporary issue gaining importance, especially in higher institutions in the
face of dwindling government funding. In spite of its importance, many tertiary institutions have not
creatively keyed into the funding mix to enhance their mandate of education and skill training. The
study investigated sustainable funding strategies utilised by tertiary institutions for improving
education and skill training in Benue State. 3 research questions guided the study. The population for
the study was 182 vocational and technical education lecturers consisting of 47 lecturers from the two
public universities and 135 lecturers from the two state colleges of education. A 45 item, 4-point
scaled instrument was used for data collection. 109 of the 182 copies of the questionnaire distributed
were retrieved and analysed using the mean and standard deviation to answer the research
questions. It was found that tertiary institutions in the state do not fully utilise available sustainable
funding strategies from government, the community, and from internally generated revenue. It was
therefore recommended tertiary institutions should: adopt the identified strategies to boost their
financial viability for improving skill training; and that government agencies exercising should use the
sustainable funding strategies as a template for tertiary institutions to implement on a yearly basis to
enhance their capacity to produce graduates with employable skills to stem the nation‟s
unemployment.
Publication Date: 2018-06-09