Abuse of private universities

Just when one thought the federal government has halted approval of new private universities, four others were given the go-ahead last week.

With the new ones, the country now has 79 private universities in addition to the 43 federal universities and 47 states universities.

I am sure many other requests are still pending and before long, other private universities will still be approved. With the high number of students seeking admission into federal and states universities who cannot be admitted, not because they are not qualified, but due to the limited spaces, there could be justification for the continued approval of more private universities.

But for the private universities in the country, many school graduates may have been denied the opportunity of university education. Even now, many admission seekers have had to resort to seeking admission, not only abroad, but in neighbouring countries out of desperation.

Some private universities can also be credited with offering quality higher education which many public institutions are incapable of offering due to lack of necessary resources and facilities.

However, it is worrisome that, typically how every opportunity is abused in our country, issuance of private universities licenses does not seem to be based on the required standard.

Suddenly, ownership of universities is becoming a status symbol with various organisations and individuals seeking to own one, even when they may not really have all it takes to run them.

Virtually every major church and Islamic organisation now has a university or is seeking one. We now have so many private universities that graduates of the institutions have to try hard to convince employers that they graduated from approved universities whose names are largely unknown.

While the private universities are supposed to have passed rigorous accreditation requirements before being issued license, what obtains in some of the campuses falls short of how such institutions should be administered or the quality of education that should be offered.

Contrary to the well-developed facilities and personnel most of them claim to have while seeking accreditation, they simply don’t have the capacity to do so.

Some hurriedly put up structures with borrowed equipment and temporarily hire lecturers from public universities to get approval.

Based on these false claims, which is obvious but ignored by the accreditation panels, they admit students who find out the inadequacies when it is too late to withdraw. Many of the private universities can’t afford to hire enough lecturers for various courses.

Because some of the private universities can lure especially public universities lecturers with attractive payments on part-time basis, students of public universities have to cope with the absence of their lecturers.

Additionally, some private universities have rules and regulations which deny their students their basic rights and academic freedom required for intellectual development.

While not advocating for total stoppage of approval of private universities, it is necessary to ensure that only those who can adhere strictly to the rules of the approval should be given permission. The rate at which the licenses are being approved, more damage is being done to our educational system.

The screening process has to be more rigorous, while there should be provision for continuous monitoring and evaluation of the operation of the institutions.