Nigeria needs more universities –Minister
The minister spoke shortly before presenting provisional approval licences to two new private universities at the auditorium of the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Abuja.
The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, a professor, said on Thursday that there’s a compelling need to establish more universities in Nigeria.
Mr Mamman said although Nigeria already has over 265 universities, “the need to establish more universities has never been more compelling.”
He spoke shortly before presenting provisional licences to the representatives of two new private universities at the National Universities Commission (NUC) Auditorium in Abuja.
The new private universities –LightHouse University, Evbuonosa, Edo State, and the African School of Economics, Abuja, FCT– have driven the total number of private universities to 149. In 2023 alone, the government approved 37 universities.
Nigeria now has a total of 265 approved universities; 53 federal, 63 state, and 149 private universities.
The minister noted that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the new private universities at its 23rd meeting in December.
He said the government will continue to welcome proposals for the establishment of private universities by credible groups and organisations “as long as the gap of access to university education continues to widen and the enrolment of students in excess of the standard carrying capacity of the Nigeria University System persists.”
However, he noted that the approvals for establishing new private universities will be subjected to the prescribed criteria by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
“When compared with countries with similarly large and growing populations such as Indonesia, which has a population of 274 million and 3,162 universities (122 public, 3,040 private); South Korea with a population of 51 million, has 203 universities 20 public, 183 private); Vietnam with a population of about 97 million people has 185 universities (120 public, 65 private); Turkey with a population of about 84 million has 207 universities (128 public, 79 private); and Pakistan, with a population of 220 million has about 217 universities (148 public, 69 private), we still have a lot of ground to cover,” he said.
Mentorship with established institutions
For the first three years of their operation, Mr Mamman noted that the universities will be affiliated with older-generation universities for academic and administrative mentoring which will be moderated by the NUC.
The LightHouse University, Evbuonosa, Edo State would be mentored by the University of Benin while the Pan African School of Economics, Abuja, FCT, would be mentored by the University of Abuja.
He said the substantive licences will be issued to the institutions after a three-year probationary period.
“This is part of NUC’s initiative for early-warning signals to detect compromises in quality so that corrective and remedial measures to redress such situations will be promptly applied,” he said.
TEXEM Advert
“Substantive licences will be issued to well-managed institutions after a three-year probationary period, following their satisfactory performance and growth, within guidelines stipulated by the commission.”
He said the mentoring institutions will be expected to assist the new institutions with recruiting human and material resources for the commencement of the academic programme, implementation of carrying capacity, assistance in staff development, moderation of student examination and the results, general quality assurance activities, moderation of admission, and external examination moderation.
Access to university ‘grossly deficient’
Speaking earlier, the acting Executive Secretary of the NUC, Chris Maiyaki, noted that despite over 265 universities in Nigeria, access to university education remains a challenge in Nigeria due to the high demand for degree education from an increasing number of university admission seekers.
He said Nigeria is still ‘grossly deficient’ in access to the university education sub-sector, which he noted is the highest producer of the skilled level manpower required to activate and sustain the socioeconomic transformation of the country.
He said: “Records show that the number of applications for university admissions for the 2023 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) was 1,635,688 out of which only 527,929 representing 37.2 per cent gained admission to universities in Nigeria.
Dangote adbanner 728x90_2 (1)
“The journey ahead is a long one. Nigeria is thus still grossly deficient in access to the university education sub-sector, which is the highest producer of the skilled level manpower required to activate and sustain the socioeconomic transformation of the country.”
About new universities
Lighthouse University, Evbuobanosa, Edo State, is owned by the Gospel Light International Ministries with its permanent site located on two campuses. The main campus is located at Benin-Agbor expressway, Orhionmwom Local Government Area of Edo State while the second campus is along Ohonvbe Road, off Benin-Agbor Road, Ikpoba Hill, Benin City.
“It initiated its pursuit of making quality university education available to prospective students by procuring the application forms, from the National Universities Commission, in May 2010,” the NUC wrote in a magazine printed for the event.
It said the university shall commence academic activities with three faculties; Management and Social Sciences, Sciences and Computing, and Engineering, with 15 undergraduate programmes.
Meanwhile, the African School of Economics, Abuja is owned by the Pan-African Institute for Advanced Economic Research.
“It pursued its plan of providing quality postgraduate education available to prospective students by procuring application forms from the National Universities Commission in August 2022,” NUC said.
NUC said the proposed university shall commence academic activities with two faculties- Social Sciences and Management Sciences, with five postgraduate programmes.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
