The Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki, has responded to those criticising the Federal Government for approving more universities in the country. He argues that the current 272 public and private universities are not enough to accommodate the ever-growing demand for university education by the Nigerian youths.

Members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have been vociferous in their opposition to proliferation of universities in Nigeria, noting particularly that the Federal Government has continued to approve new universities when the existing ones are not properly funded.

The ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, speaking on the development, demanded that the Act establishing the National Universities Commission (NUC) be amended to make it more potent in arresting excessive establishment of universities in Nigeria.

Osodeke said: “As you are possibly aware, the proliferation of universities was one of the issues that led to the series of strike actions of 2020 and 2022.

“The union demanded and still demands that the 2020 ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action (MoA) which stressed the need to review the NUC Act to make it more potent in arresting the reckless and excessive establishment of universities be fully implemented.

“During the lifetime of the last legislative session, a joint committee of ASUU and NUC submitted a draft bill to the National Assembly on this matter. However, that bill did not see the light of the day.

“The fallout from that is the reckless manner by which both the Federal and State governments have continued to pronounce universities without preparations for their funding. This recently came to a worrisome height when a sitting Governor boastfully declared that he would establish ten universities in his State before the end of his tenure!

“However, rather than supporting our advocacy for adequate funding of public universities, each Senator is surreptitiously pushing for the establishment of a university as part of their constituency projects while Visitors to State Universities who could not find existing universities are creating two or more purely for electoral gains.

“This trend has put much stress on intervention funds of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) which are diverted to establish new universities contrary to the Fund’s Act. ASUU shall explore all legal means to resist the pervasive moves by politicians to keep proliferating crisis centres for the children of the poor in the name of universities.

“We urge the President Tinubu-led administration to refrain from further proliferation of universities and refocus the system. What we need are universities that are adequately empowered to address the challenges confronting Nigeria and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers elsewhere in the world and mushroom glorified high schools,” Osodeke said.

However, the NUC boss in his reaction justified the need for establishment of more universities in Nigeria to cater for the growing demands of applicants, especially the youth.

He said the existing 272 public and private universities in Nigeria are grossly inadequate to accommodate the growing demand for university education by the youth.

While comparing the population bracket of Nigeria to those of India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, the United States and Russia, Maiyaki noted that enrollment of just two million Nigerians in universities represented barely one per cent, saying it was not good enough.

“In an enrollment of two million Nigerians, barely one percent are in the University, while in some of these countries they have over 25 to 30 per cent of their population in the University.

“Until we get to the point of saturation where the teeming Nigeria youths who want to acquire a university education are comfortable, we will continue to approve more Universities,” he said.

He added that as part of NUC’s efforts to improve on the quality of education in Nigeria, it had finalized guidelines on Transnational Education (TNE), thereby opening doors for foreign educational institutions to participate in Nigeria’s University education landscape.

He added that the new standards being laid out by the Commission was intended to serve as a guiding light towards a future where the quality of teaching, learning, and research in Nigerian Universities would stand out unrivalled.

Maiyaki said the Commission has identified strategic priorities that encompass curriculum development, quality assurance, research and innovation, infrastructure development, deeper IT penetration, and internationalization, among others to ensure better outcomes from the Nigerian University System for national development.

He said NUC remains steadfast in its commitment to reposition the Nigerian University System for excellence and global competitiveness.

“To encourage partnership with industry and promote blended learning, the NUC carried out an extensive review of university curricula from the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standard, BMAS, to the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards, CCMAS, which reflects the aspirations of Nigeria to attain a knowledge economy, driven by the 4th Industrial Revolution, 4IR, and the 21 Century skills. The CCMAS features an expansion of academic disciplines from 14 to 17.

“The implementation of the new curricula came into effect in September 2023, for the 2023/2024 academic session to enhance teaching and learning.

He said the commission has also improved the guidelines on Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes, ensuring integration and mainstreaming of e-learning into the conventional face-to-face modes of teaching and learning in Nigerian Universities for “quality delivery and to keep pace with contemporary global best practices.” (Nigerian Tribune)

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