Qualitative Study on Managing Student Welfare Services and Educational Stability during the period of Post ASUU Strike in Nigerian Public Universities: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64348/zije.2026563Keywords:
ASUU strikes, Educational stability, Student welfare services, Nigerian public universities, Post-strike recoveryAbstract
This study adopts a narrative literature review and integrative synthesis to examine the effects of the ASUU strike on student welfare and educational stability in Nigerian public universities. The review draws on published scholarly literature, policy-related discussions, and conceptual studies on strike actions, student welfare, learning continuity, and post-strike academic reintegration. Through a theory-informed synthesis of the literature, the study analyses how existing research defines welfare benefit coverage during strike periods, measures welfare conditions during resumption, and links welfare administration with indicators of educational stability. The review shows that existing studies are largely based on cross-sectional evidence, with limited longitudinal and multi-institutional analysis. It also finds that many proposed interventions—such as expanded welfare support and online counselling—remain largely theoretical and insufficiently validated empirically. Across the literature, strike actions are consistently associated with psychological stress, compressed academic calendars, and weakened instructional quality, yet there is little development of predictive or integrative models that account for broader outcomes such as student retention, timely graduation, and SIWES completion. A major contribution of this review is the development of a conceptual synthesis framework that connects culturally relevant theoretical perspectives—including Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Frustration-Aggression theory, and Social Disruption theory—with SDG-4 and SDG-3 benchmarks for educational quality and well-being. Based on this synthesis, the study advances a welfare-led stabilization paradigm that emphasizes the interdependent roles of students, lecturers, parents, and university administrators, and reconceptualizes welfare as an operational predictor of educational stability rather than a peripheral support measure. The review, therefore, provides a basis for longitudinal, multi-institutional, and policy-relevant research capable of improving reintegration, academic continuity, and overall educational quality in Nigerian public universities.
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