The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NUC

  • Varsity Law programme approved

    Varsity Law programme approved

    fter three years of legal battle, the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and the Council for Legal Education (CLE) have approved the Faculty of Law of Lead City University, Ibadan.

    With the development, the university will admit students for the programme with the award of LLB degree after completion.

    The crisis rocking the programme reached a peak in 2011 when the NUC suspended the programme. It said the university was not approved for the programme because members of the CLE did not participate in the accreditation exercise for which it (NUC) approved the programme.

    The university will this week confer honourary doctorate degrees on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Esama of Benin, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and the Bishop of Ijebu Diocese, Anglican Communion, Ayodele Awosoga.

    The ceremony will start with a lecture tomorrow, which will be delivered by the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Adewole.

     

  • NUC accredits Engineering Courses at Adeleke University

    NUC accredits Engineering Courses at Adeleke University

    The Nigeria University Commission (NUC) has approved engineering programmes for Adeleke University, a private university, situated in Ede, Osun State, for the new 2014/2015 academic session.

    The institution was licensed by N.U.C to start academic operations fully 2011. Adeleke University offers various courses in faculties of Business and Social Sciences, Arts and Sciences. The recent approval of the Engineering programmes has added to the list of approved faculties in the faith-based institution.

    Speaking about the accreditation, Director of Admissions in the institution, Mr. Dipo Aliu, who said; “the NUC has approved engineering courses for the institution (Adeleke University), and these include Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical/ Electronic Engineering and Agricultural Engineering. These four courses, thereby, will start running immediately, from this coming session, which commences on Monday, the 13th of October, 2014.”

     

  • Reps probe mass failure in WASSCE

    Reps probe mass failure in WASSCE

    Members of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Education will today begin investigation into the mass failure in this year’s May/June West African Examination Council (WAEC) results.

    They described the mass failure “unacceptable”.

    For the fourth consecutive year, candidates who wrote the WAEC May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) recorded mass failure.

    Only 529,425, (31. 28 per cent) obtained five credits, including English and Mathematics.

    This put the total failure percentage at 31.

    Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Education, Aminu Fagge, addressed reporters yesterday during the committee’s oversight function at the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

    He said the committee would hold the government responsible, if it is found culpabale in the mass failure.

    The visit to WAEC office, he said, was to enable the committee have first-hand information on the mass failure.

    Fagge said: “It is unfortunate. Incidentally, we will visit WAEC tomorrow (today) and it will form part of our engagement with WAEC. But I want to believe that WAEC will not be held sorely responsible for this sad development. It is the responsibility of parents, teachers and schools where those students were tutored. We want to interact with WAEC and, here from them, we want to know what is actually responsible for this alarming rate of failure, which was put at about 38 per cent in a percentage of 100.

    “This is unacceptable… I believe the government has done the best it could. But if there are areas of improvement from the government, we will hold it accountable. We will try to encourage the government to do the proper thing and follow those responsible for this. If it means sanitising the entire community to help the Ministry of Education and the government, we will do so in the interest of Nigerians.”

    NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okoje, told the lawmakers that inadequate budgetary allocation to the commission hindered its development.

    Many activities, he said, were not adequately prosecuted due to paucity of fund.

    Represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Administration, Dr. Akinbode Agbaoye, the NUC chief said the commission would not rest on its oars to achieve its objectives.

  • ‘Only 5.2m Nigerians are covered by health insurance’

    Of the over 170 million estimated Nigeria’s population, only 5.2 million are covered by the health insurance, the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Dr. Femi Thomas said yesterday.

    Nigerians, he said, should take advantage of the scheme to improve their health.

    Thomas spoke in Abuja at a tertiary institution’s students’ health insurance programme, organised by the National Universities Commission (NUC), in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students Matters.

    He said new measures should be taken to change to what he called the sad development.

    The NHIS chief urged students to take advantage of the NHIS scheme.

    Thomas said: “Sixty-two per cent of our health expenditure is still from our pockets. We should always take care of ourselves and the environment. With NHIS scheme, you are safe for the rainy days. It is sad to note that only 5.2 million Nigerians are covered by health insurance. We should come up with new measures to change this development.

    “By the time we change this trend, it will also be better for students in higher institutions.”

    NUC Executive Secretary, Prof Julius Okojie, expressed disappointment that about 52 universities were not under the NHIS.

  • NUC shuts two illegal varsities

    NUC shuts two illegal varsities

    TWO illegal universities were sealed up by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) in Lagos last week. They are Evangel University of America, Egan, Igando, and Clinton University Study Centre, in Ojokoro, a Lagos suburb.

    Leader of the NUC team, Prof Adebisi Balogun, said the ‘schools’ are unapproved private universities.

    At the time the NUC team and others from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the State Security Service (SSS) got to the colleges last Tuesday, unsuspecting students were seated for the day’s class sessions. The proprietor and a bursar of one of the schools were arrested.

    At the Evangel Christian University of America, a four-bedroom flat on 2, Akinola Street, Olufemi Estate, Egan, Igando, the enforcement team arrested Dr. Philip Nnaji, the school’s Bursar, a midde-aged man.

    Nnaji, however, claimed he did not know the institution was operating illegally. He told the officials that to the best of his knowledge, the institution runs as an affiliate campus of the parent university in Illinois, United States. “The Nigerian campus only awards diploma, degrees and post graduate degrees in Theology,” he said.

    Many of the students were too shocked to speak. A few of them told The Nation that they were told the school was approved by the NUC, giving them the confidence to enrol. Some fell into the trap because they were unable to gain admission into the regular universities.

    At Clinton University Study Centre, Ojokoro, which operated inside a shopping mall, the proprietor, who called himself Uranta, denied operating a degree “awarding mill”.

    He said he was only running a Management Programme under the name “Clindick Management Academy” to prepare students for external examinations.

    Uranta also claimed that he had started seeking approval to establish a university named Clinton University in Afam, Rivers State, which was still in progress.  He even claimed that his last correspondence with the NUC was on June 14.

    “I applied to NUC last year and was invited to their office in Abuja. When I got there, NUC said no. This year, I applied for the proposed Clinton University. We went for the interview and were successful. Then, NUC wrote in June 2014, asking us to come and pick the form to run the university,” Uranta said.

    Uranta’s claim was however countered by Prof Balogun, Chairman, NUC Committee on Closure of Illegal Universities in Nigeria.

    Balogun said it was glaring that Uranta had not he applied to the NUC at all, yet admitted unsuspecting students.

    Balogun said: “The most important thing that is glaring form this exercise is that Mr Uranta has been operating an illegal outfit to desperate Nigerian students. And this must have been ongoing for some time. Although he has tried to convince us that he is making efforts to comply in terms of having filled the application forms, which is just one of the 14  steps required to open a university, that does not give him the right to start admitting students for Masters degree as we have seen with evidence today.

    “His so-called university has not been approved or in the least, the process has not started. And even if started, he cannot begin by awarding Masters degree from the outset.”

    Balogun also said the NUC publishes, in its Monday bulletins, names of these illegal universities. “And this is why the NUC has been sending monitoring teams to inform us of their activities across the country. We also send them warning messages and notes of caution, telling them that, if they want to run a private university, there are procedures that must be followed. But they won’t listen but just go on to establish and start running the ‘illegal mills’,” he said.

    During the raid, the officials confiscated several items such as students’ projects, receipts, computers, list of admitted students, bank tellers and files containing details about the university management before sealing the place a no-entry barrier.

    Balogun said the activities of operators of illegal universities in the country would continue as long as parents continue to send their children to such colleges because of desperation to get them admitted to tertiary institutions at all cost.

    While some of the students expressed hopelessness at the closure of their schools, asking where they would go from that point, Balogun advised parents and the students to do thorough findings on approved universities from the NUC, which is the appropriate authority.

    He said: “Go through the NUC website where we publish the list of all approved universities in Nigeria every week. We also publish the list of illegal universities and ‘degree mills’. There should be no confusion in going to regular universities.  However, should a student or his parents be unsure, they should resort to the Commission for clarification. When you ask for information instead of sending your children to these places to waste your hard-earned money and their precious lives, both of you will not be helped. In the long run, it will not help Nigeria. It will all amount to waste and at the end of the day. The degrees earned from these institutions will not be recognised for jobs or even for their career growth in life.”

  • NUC shuts Illegal Universities in Lagos

    NUC shuts Illegal Universities in Lagos

    Two illegal universities have been sealed  in Lagos by the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC).

    The institutions, Evangel University of America, Egan,Igando, and Clinton University Study Centre, in Ojokoro, an outskirt of Lagos Statewere shut last Tuesday.

    According to the team of the NUC officials that led the operation, the ‘schools’ are unapproved private universities.

    Unsuspecting students were already seated for the day’s class sessions when the team of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), the operators of the State Security Service (SSS), and NUC, got to the ‘colleges’.

    The proprietor and a bursar of one of the schools were arrested.

    At the Evangel Christian University of America, a four-bedroom flat on 2, Akinola Street, Olufemi Estate, Egan, Igando, the enforcement team arrested Dr. Philip Nnaji, the school bursar, a middle-aged man.

    Nnaji however feigned ignorance saying he was not aware that the institution was operating illegally. He told the officials that to the best of his knowledge, the institution runs as an affiliate campus of the parent university sited in Illinois, United States of America(USA). He said the Nigerian campus only awards diploma, degrees and post graduate degrees in Theology.

    Many of the students, who were shocked at the operations on their college, looked on in amazement. Some of them told The Nation that they were told the school is approved by the NUC, and that was why they enrolled their because regular universities continually denied them admission opportunities.

  • ‘NUC should monitor faith-based varsities more’

    With their level of organisation and strong hold on their students,  faith-based universities have the potential to enhance nation building, if better monitored by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

    This is the view of Dr Fatai Aremu, a teacher at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

    Delivering a paper at the Special Departmental Seminar Series of the Department of Political Science, unilorin with the theme, Political consequences of non-state provision of university education: A focus on faith-based universities, Aremu said though the private universities do well with moral and religious training of students, they are deficient in providing training on political consciousness

    He said: “I think they are in a very good position to help the country because they are well organised, and they have very strong control of their studentship, but I don’t think the Ministry of Education or the NUC has done enough in supervising, monitoring or requesting the faith-based universities to help in inculcating in their students the right political attitude that will be helpful for elections, and for political activism. The faith-based universities are very efficient in training their students religiously to be morally upright but in terms of political consciousness or political attitude, they are doing nothing and it is because the Ministry of Education and the NUC are not demanding of them to do these things.”

    Aremu blamed the trend on the failure of the NUC to consider the peculiarities of the private providers of tertiary education as distinct from state/public universities

    To foster nation building, Dr Aremu also suggested that the curriculum of the citizenship education course be strengthened to emphasise nationally-appreciated values, and ethnic and religious tolerance.

    The Director, Institute of Education, UNILORIN, Prof. A. Abdulkareem, praised Aremu has for reviving the lecture that has been moribund for some time despite busy schedule.

    “We in the Faculty of Education especially Educational Management, we must be partners in progress. If this kind of thing is happening; if we come together, we will be able to cross fertilise ideas,” he said.

    Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Noah Yusuf, praised Aremu for doing justice to the topic of the lecture, which will now hold every month.

     

  • NUC team visits affiliate colleges

    NUC team visits affiliate colleges

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) has begun routine accreditation of programmes/courses in the colleges affiliated to Ekiti State University (EKSU).

    The NUC Team was at the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo recently, to assess some programmes in Arts Education and Science Education.

    EKSU Vice Chancellor, Prof Oladipo Aina, who received the NUC Team at the College, lauded its efforts to ensure standard in the education sector through its assessment and accreditation process.

    Aina assured the team of EKSU’s commitment to best practices in running degree programmes with the affiliate colleges.

    The EKSU Vice-Chancellor explained that the vision of the university to transform to a world class institution has been embraced by all its affiliate colleges which have gone on to upgrade their academic standard and attract the best tutors to produce  graduates who would be sought after in the labour market.

    The NUC Team was made up of Prof. Muhammadu Abdullah, Prof. Dauladi Musa and Prof Oluyemisi Badejo among others.

  • Don’t accredit varsities without counselling centres, don tells NUC

    Don’t accredit varsities without counselling centres, don tells NUC

    •Only 20 of 128 varsities have counselling centres

    The establishment of Counseling and Human Development Centres (CHDC) should be a prerequisite for institutional accreditation of universities by the National Universities Commission (NUC), a professor of Guidance and Counselling at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Adeyemi Idowu has recommended.

    Idowu, who is the Provost, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State, said this while delivering the 145th inaugural lecture of UNILORIN, entitled: “Raising the bar: The Counselor’s Mandate”.

    He lamented that contrary to a government directive on the establishment of CHDC, several universities, both public and private, have not yielded to the order.

    He warned that unless the issue of counselling is adequately addressed, there is the danger that Nigeria will, for a long time, continue to be a nation of unrealised hopes and unfulfilled promises.

    Idowu said the refusal of full accreditation should equally be extended to Colleges of Education and Polytechnics that fail to establish the centres, which are meant to assist students in dealing with possible challenges that can affect their behaviour and psychological make-up while in school.

    He said: “The Federal Government had once issued an order to all universities to set up independent counseling centres on their campuses. According to the order, the practice of providing counselling centres through the education faculty should stop as they were not being given their required place in the university system. The Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Julius Okojie, said the documents were produced to ensure that universities provide the psychological, behavioural and other learning support services for students.

    “As at January 2014, only eight out of 40 federal universities had fully equipped and functional counselling centres. Another survey report shows that many state universities are without CHDC. Of the 38 state universities, only eight have counselling centres. The situation is even the worse in private universities. Out of the 50 private universities surveyed as at January 2014, only four have fully equipped CHDC. The story is not different in other tertiary institutions; Colleges of Education and Polytechnics.”

    Idowu, who became a professor in October 1994, also asked the Federal Government to set up a National Guidance Council to work with the professional body of counsellors, CASSON, towards speeding up the process of professionalizing counseling in Nigeria.

  • Afe Babalola advocates life for illegal varsities’ proprietors

    Afe Babalola advocates life for illegal varsities’ proprietors

    The founder, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), has advocated life imprisonment for proprietors of illegal universities.

    He said such individuals must also be made to forfeit their property.

    Noting the urgency of need to overhaul/amend the law, which established the National Universities Commission (NUC), to enable it deal with the current experience in tertiary education, Babalola said: “There is need to amend Section 22 of the Law on Powers of NUC to close downa illegal universities.”

    He spoke yesterday at the institution while addressing the accreditation team of the NUC led by Mr. Muhammed Ndanusa, a deputy director at the NUC, who led the team.

    Said he: “As at today, besides the United States of America, Nigeria has the largest number of illegal universities or institutions. I am worried about the irreparable damage these illegal institutions and their operators are doing to millions of students and their parents.”

    According to Babalola, the NUC act was passed in 1985, while the law, which regulated the establishment of private universities, came only in 1990.

    He added: “There is therefore need to put in place new laws, which can address the current challenges.”

    Babalola said the law should also be amended to give NUC the power to verify the certificates of university lecturers and professors, adding: “Many of them have been discovered to parade fake certificates.

    “We have discovered that many lecturers and professors parade fake certificates. There is need to make a law, which will impose severe punishment on those parading such certificates.”

    Ndanusa hailed the ABUAD founder for the progress made so far in ensuring quality in the university.