The National Universities Commission said plans are being concluded to announce the establishment of two new universities in the country which will further bring the total number of institutions in the country to 272.
The commission’s acting Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki,
said this during an interaction with journalists in Abuja on Thursday.
Maiyaki said the NUC would continue to approve new
universities to cater for the admissions gap in the country.
He noted that while about two million candidates seek
admission into universities every year, the total available quota for admission
range between 500,000 and 700,000.
Maiyaki’s stance comes amidst the fight of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities and other stakeholders in the tertiary education
sub-sector against the proliferation of institutions in the country by the
government at the Federal and State levels.
Stakeholders on numerous occasions said the establishment of
new universities amidst poor funding of existing ones was not the way to go and
hence had called on the government and the NUC to halt approvals given to new
public universities.
“We have no choice but to as a matter of deliberate policy
undertake the massification of universities,” Maiyaki said.
He said what separates the developed today from other
countries is the level of investments in education.
Maiyaki said every year, almost two million candidates seek
admission into the universities but only between 500,000 and 700,000 students
get admitted.
He said, “You need to see the anguish and the frustration on
the faces of families who are desperate to make sure that their children attend
university education every admission session. It is very tough and challenging
for university leaders and NUC and so we have no choice but to continue to
approve the universities.
“The approval for two
more varsities to bring the number of universities in the country to 272 has
been concluded and will be announced next week.”
He maintained that Nigeria will continue to widen
universities’ access by approving more universities to meet its demands and
supply of quality education.
While noting that countries like Brazil, Indonesia and
others who have a population not up to Nigeria have more than 1,000
universities, he said efforts were ongoing to reposition the university system
through transnational education by allowing foreign varsities to come in and
operate in the country.
The Executive Secretary said the commission is presently
processing applications for the establishment of distance learning centres that
will be monitored to provide quality education.
The NUC boss, however, stressed that it does not mean the
era of establishing distance learning centres is back.
Reacting to a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission inviting proprietors of private universities and other institutions
of higher learning in Nigeria to charge fees in dollars, he said no tertiary institutions
is allowed to charge tuition fees in dollars.
He said the commission had made an inquiry into the
allegation and thus investigated but discovered that the said private
university was not charging fees in dollars.
“On the dollarisation of tuition fees in this said
university, we have investigated it and the university is not charging fees in
dollars.
They only charge dollars to foreign students. So I want the
media to join hands with us to tell the public that no Nigeria university is
allowed to charge fees in dollars,” he said.
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