Concerns arise over quality of education as National University Commission (NUC) disclosed that 303 application requests to process private varsities.
The Executive Secretary of NUC Prof Abubakar Rasheed, while speaking in a summit said the applications were being passed by group of individuals, religious bodies and corporate bodies.
According to him, the commission is working with the National Assembly to review the guidelines for the establishment of private varsities, noting that it is no longer realistic to say a university must be built on a 100 hectare land.
The NUC boss said the Nigerian university system has risen through the application of private resources, from 30 universities in 1996 to 170 universities in 2019. He said out of the number, 79 were private with 38, representing 48.11 per cent owned by faith-based organisations.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, represented by the Permanent Secretary Arc Sonny Echono, said private varsities are faced with numerous challenges of inadequate funding, proprietor influence, staffing, and students’ admission quota, among others.
He said the key to the success of their effort in filling the gap in the university education in the country is focus on the important aspect of the certificate they offer by ensuring students acquired the required character and discipline.
‘Some varsities run like family businesses’
Professor Nasiru Idris, the Dean, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, said a lot of private proprietors were passionate about education.
He said, “The essence of establishing private universities is to complement government effort in providing university education to Nigerians, but it seems the aim is defeated as some owners choose to run them like a family business and finally the quality and standard of education is compromised.
He further said quite a lot of promoters scramble to build private universities to make gain as the cost of higher education escalates. “It shouldn’t be the case, private universities should be as cheap as the public ones as obtainable in some countries,” he said.
Also commenting, former Vice Chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, (ATBU), Professor Saminu Ibrahim said there is access gap to higher education due to insufficient spaces for admission seekers in universities thus many proprietors establish universities to accommodate the teeming candidates.
He said about 12,000 candidates applied for various programmes in ATBU in the previous session but the university was only able to admit 4,000.
He also said a number of private promoters established universities to make profit, adding that as more universities are being licensed, attempt should also be made to improve the efficiency and quality of university education.
