The Federal Government last week announced the granting of licences to enable seven new private universities to operate. With that approval, the number of recognised universities in the country rose to ninety-six, thirty-four of them private.
The Minister of Interior, Dr Abba Moro, on Thursday advised operators of private universities to emulate the quality trends of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, in upholding global standards.
The public university education system in the country is at a crossroads. A combination of unending face-off between lecturers and government and the poor state of infrastructure has promised a bleak future for students. Their parents and guardians are weighed down by this development. Some who can afford it are already seriously considering sending their wards abroad to acquire university education.
The acting Vice-Chancellor, Elizade University, Ilara -Mokin , Ondo State, Professor Theophileus Oyeyemi Fadayemi , has appealed to the Federal Government to allow private universities to benefit from the Tertiary Education Trust (TET Fund) grants . Fadayemi made the appeal made at a press conference which was held at the university campus on Friday in preparation for the school’s 1st convocation ceremony. The VC said such intervention from the Federal Government would help in manpower development in private universities across the country. While noting that Education Trust Fund was set up by the Federal Government to assist the development of the Nigerian Higher Education System, decried a situation whereby it is only government-owned universities are allowed to accessed the funds “We appealed to the Federal Government to allow private universities to benefit from TETfUND which has been restricted to Federal universities. The private universities that are ready to go into research should be able to have access to TETfUND. “We have all the capacity here at Elizade University in terms of our commitment .What we are asking for is that they should give us access to TETFUND. ” Fadayemi said a total of 35 out of 64 students that was admitted as first set of students of the university on January 6,2013 ,will be graduating at the convocation. He said that five students had first class honours while 17 and 13 had second class upper division, second class lower division respectively. The VC also said all courses the school runs are fully accredited. “The 17 programmes presented for NUC ‘s accreditation with all the 17 having full accreditation status. ” he said.
Students of tertiary institutions under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday staged a protest in Ado- Ekiti against the prolonged strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Education in Nigeria is nothing to write home about. The present standard is at its lowest level. Good enough, the Christian private universities have contributed, in no small measure, to the raising of the standard. However, we should ask ourselves if these private universities are meeting the needs of those who really want to acquire qualitative education but are limited financially?
Similarly, the National Universities Commission (NUC) has licensed several private universities based on the population of prospective applicants for admission. The driving force of the decisions of the NUC has been the need to broaden access to university education regardless of the consequence on the quality of university education. In the end, several public and private universities have consistently failed to meet the requirements for accreditation by the NUC, putting students in dire situations.
A university system is that institution which operates at the tertiary level of the country’s educational system. Regarding which level of government should run a university system, the Nigerian constitution places university education on the concurrent list; implying that both the federal and the state governments can establish and run a university.
We believe that the future of this nation lies with the private universities. When we say some of them are fledgling, it is because they will suffer from the pain of just beginning a programme, which forms the fulcrum of the issue.