BEYOND THE BANKING MODEL: STUDENT-LED INNOVATION AS LIBERATORY PRACTICE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Higher education in Nigeria, like much of the Global South, remains constrained by what Freire termed the "banking model" of education. It is a passive system where knowledge is passively deposited rather than co-created. This paper argues that student-led innovation hubs in Nigerian universities represent a form of liberatory practice which challenges the oppressive pedagogical paradigm and drives institutional transformation. Drawing on Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, it analyses how these hubs, from maker spaces to tech incubators, embody critical pedagogy in action, fostering conscientization (critical consciousness), praxis (reflection and action), as well as dialogic learning. Through case studies of hubs at the University of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University, it demonstrates how students subvert bureaucratic constraints through peer-to-peer skill-sharing, reclaim curricular agency by prototyping solutions to local problems, as well as negotiate power with university administrations. Findings show that these hubs are not merely extracurricular additions but rather sites of positive resistance, and spaces where students enact Freire’s vision of education as "the practice of freedom." However, tensions persist, as neoliberal university policies often co-opt student innovation for market-driven ends instead of social transformation. The paper concludes by advocating for institutional alliances between hubs and faculty to systematically dismantle the banking model. By centering student voices, this paper contributes to debates on decolonial education not only in Nigeria but in Africa and offers a template for reimagining universities as democratic, student-driven ecosystems.