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Tag: private Universities

  • FEC approves 11 new private universities

    FEC approves 11 new private universities

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved provisional licenses for 11 new private universities across Nigeria, further expanding the country’s higher education sector.

    Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, who announced the approvals after the FEC meeting, also disclosed that a moratorium has been placed on the issuance of licenses for additional private universities. 

    However, he clarified that institutions already in advanced stages of the approval process would not be affected.

    The newly approved institutions include: New City University, Ayetoro, Ogun State; University of Fortune, Igbotako, Ondo State; Eranova University, Mabushi, FCT; and Minaret University, Ikirun, Osun State.

    Others are Abubakar Toyin University, Oke-Agba, Kwara State; Southern Atlantic University, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State; Lens University, Ilemona, Kwara State and Monarch University, Iyesi-Ota, Ogun State.

    Also approved are Tonnie Iredia University of Communication, Benin City, Edo State; Isaac Balami University of Aeronautics and Management, Lagos; and Kevin Eze University, Mgbowo, Enugu State.

    Read Also: FEC extends Ramadan greetings to Nigerians

    Alausa reassured that the FEC remains committed to expanding access to quality tertiary education and will continue to evaluate universities that meet the required standards and investment criteria.

    With these approvals, Nigeria has over 150 private universities, a significant increase in response to the growing demand for higher education in the country.

    The FEC also approved a policy to support local manufacturing of leather goods and footwear, with N500 million set aside to empower women in the sector.

    Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, announced this on Monday after the FEC meeting.

    According to the Minister, the approval grants the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology the mandate to supply starter packs for leather and footwear manufacturing, a sector where women play a crucial role.

    “This is exciting for us because it encourages women’s participation in an industry with high potential for economic growth,” Sulaiman-Ibrahim said.

    She added that the initiative ensures that a portion of the intervention is allocated to women, providing them with the necessary tools to scale their businesses and contribute to local production.

    “We pushed for a portion of this intervention to be allocated to women, ensuring they have the necessary tools to scale their businesses and contribute to local production,” she explained.

    Beyond empowering female entrepreneurs, Sulaiman-Ibrahim emphasized that the intervention would also boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by strengthening local manufacturing.

  • Who is afraid of private universities?

    Are the fears of people who are afraid of the surge of private universities in the country rational or otherwise? This may be a difficult question to answer in a country with a weak culture of research and data appreciation. How much more anti-data can a country approaching sixty years of postcolonial life be than one that is still debating and ‘planning’ how to create an effective birth and death registration system? But today’s focus is on proliferation of private universities.

    The news from the National Universities Commission (NUC), the body that regulates universities in the country, that it is in the process of considering 303 applications for establishment of private universities should be enough to startle citizens on the right and on the left of the ideological pole. As expected, the Executive Secretary of the commission assured his audience that his agency is in cooperation with the federal government to review requirements for starting private universities and standards for sustaining them. But the huge number of applications throws up issues about the future of university education in a country that is never tired of talking about equal opportunities for all.

    Currently, there are 180 universities, not counting the three newly approved universities of education and 68 illegal universities that dot the country, struggling to teach students yearning for degrees at all costs. At the conference on “Regulating Private University Education Delivery in Nigeria,” the secretary affirmed that many of the 80 existing private universities have been unable to meet their admission quotas. The Minister of Education acknowledged that private universities have added value since they came on board, while the Executive Secretary of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said the private universities have caused more problems than they have solved. The reference to these three officials with divergent views is to draw attention to issues that deserve special attention from those charged with planning strategies in respect of development of higher education. It may be necessary for the country to assess contributions of existing 80 universities before licensing new ones.

    One question crying for answer is what has broken in university education system to induce in 2019 over 300 applications for new private universities? Granted that not every citizen with prerequisites to benefit from higher education gets admitted because of limited spaces in existing universities, is the solution to this problem necessarily in starting new universities? If about 80 existing private universities admit a total of 7% of undergraduates, is it not possible to urge such universities to improve their capacity for increased enrollment? Are the over 100 public universities—federal and state—already at saturation point in terms of enrollment? Given the size of physical space available in existing public universities, nothing should stop each university from having 50,000 students in residence every year. Many US public and private universities have teaching spaces for 50,000 students at a time. For example, Northeastern University (a private college) and many state university systems: Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Missouri, Michigan, and Illinois have up to 50,000 in enrollment at a time.

    Another question concerns how stringent are the requirements for setting up private universities? Having 303 applications on file suggests that the conditions may not be realistic in the context of the country’s economy. From what the average observer can see, the wealth of most of the country’s billionaires derives from and depends on funds from petroleum or government contracts or pork projects. The country’s productive economy does not look strong enough to create in one year over 300 billionaires that can start and sustain credible university education, especially in a cultural context in which each applicant for ownership of university may desire to name the new university after himself.

    Such desire for self-advertisement or self-immortalization, as most of the owners of private universities in the country are not younger than 50 years, prevents such educational entrepreneurs from pooling resources to own one university. There is ample evidence that many of faith-based universities currently in operation are not doing well, particularly since their resources depend on collections or donations from members, and in some cases, donations from foreign countries interested in promoting specific Christian or Muslim sects overseas. Solo ownership of universities by individuals should remind us about the situation of the proliferation of private primary and secondary schools across the country. A Yoruba proverb that says, “a husband who wants to know what his wife would look like in old age should just look at his wife’s mother,” may apply to the future of having too many private universities. All that we need to look at is that pushing education on the laps of entrepreneurs does not necessarily determine efficiency.

    For example, despite the huge number of private schools in the country and without countenancing all manners of examination malpractices, success rate in WAEC and NECO hovers around 40%. It is common knowledge that private secondary schools hire more unqualified teachers than public schools. We need to collect data on success rates of private secondary schools to guide us about how to regulate private universities, especially that there is no common examination for university students. It is already common knowledge that private universities award more first-class degrees than public universities with most of the country’s long-serving and internationally exposed professors.

    It is appropriate that NUC and other government agencies are keen on the need to enhance delivery of university education by private owners. The conference should also be followed by another one on what should governments—federal and state—do to make regulations of private universities effective, given the fact that public universities are believed to be producing less competitive graduates than the public universities that produced in the past the current leaders of most public universities.

    A final aspect of making private university system the predominant model (by creating more private universities than public ones) is the implication of such choice of policy for closing or reducing the equality gap in the country. It is a fact that those who invest in private universities want good returns on their investments by charging fees that may be unaffordable to majority of citizens. What plans do the governments have to ensure that existing public universities do not become ghettoes for children from poor homes, as admission to private universities continues to be available only to children with parents with deep pockets? Currently, places to private universities are taken by children with parents who can afford to spend at least N1 million naira per annum  per child, in a country where the minimum wage is N18,000 per month and may not exceed N30,000 per month for the next four years?

    There ought to be a balance between the interests of those on the right who believe in the magic of the market in every sphere of modern life and those on the left who believe that the purpose of government is to make sure that it is able to cater to the needs of all citizens. It is risky to crowd out public universities with private universities and in the process marginalize children from the largest class. This may also be a good time for a public referendum on how to fund public universities and make them competitive without failing to provide access to citizens with humble economic pedigree. The country needs to find out if citizens, especially the poor would prefer that their children receive an education that can make them get jobs anywhere on the planet and whether they are allergic to restoration of scholarships, bursaries, and loans, to replace the current ‘free’ university education that has proven to be incapable of delivering education that can compete globally.

    I believe it is possible for the country’s leaders to come up with a compromise that may be acceptable to those on the right and on the left of the ideological pole regarding how to create a university education that can make graduates competitive, not those that federal ministers characterize as unemployable. Now that 303 applications for private universities are on the table may be a good time to look at higher education reform.

  • The rot in private universities

    Some Nigerians know how to spoil a good thing and abuse opportunities provided by the government to enhance some sectors.

    If not, how do we explain the rot in private universities which the Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, ( JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede noted while speaking at the opening ceremony of a seminar on private universities in the country.

    According to Oloyede, the government opened up the space for private operators to complement its efforts at providing university education to Nigerians, but it seems like the aim is gradually being defeated.

    “ When you visit some private universities, you will be ashamed for Nigeria. From the structures, you will know that something is wrong. If you take a deeper look, you will discover more decadence and rot in their operations. Some of the proprietors choose to run the universities like a family business and it ought not to be so,” he stated.

    Although the published story on the Oloyede’s alarm on the worrisome state of private universities did not give more details, evidences abound that many of the institutions don’t have what it takes to provide the standard of academic instructions and environment for learning required.

    While the applications for the establishment of private universities are supposed to have been properly scrutinized by the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) before approval by the Federal Executive Council headed by the President, there is no justification for the issuance of licenses to the some operators based on what obtains on some of the supposed campuses as Oloyede rightly noted and many other stakeholders have pointed out in the past.

    It is commendable that some individuals and organisations have taken up the challenge of helping to address the admission deficit in federal and state universities, but it is equally important to ensure that the standards required for such level of education are not lowered.

    To get approval for establishment and accreditation for courses, all manners of manipulation and false claims are involved.  Equipment presented are sometimes rented. Some listed lecturers are not staff of the institutions and some don’t even have the required academic qualifications and years of experience.

    Because of the financial benefits, some lecturers in public universities move from one private university to the other while failing to teach their own students.

    To attract students, many of the private universities can go to any length, even if it means admitting those with lesser qualifications stipulated by the JAMB as long as they can pay their fees. The certificates issued by some of the universities have been subject of controversy considering the limited personel they have.

    In the management of the institutions, many are run at the whims and caprices of their founders who do not have any regard for the rights and privileges of the students and staff.

    Since the summit Professor Oloyede spoke at was organized by the NUC which is the supervising institution for universities in the country, it is necessary that steps are taken to urgently address the apparent devaluation of university education by not only the private universities, but even the public universities, some of which are also guilty of some of the inadequacies.

    If certificates of some of the private universities are to be duly recognized by employers and other institutions, rules and regulations governing the establishment and running of the institutions must be enforced.

    For now, no new license should be issued for private universities out of the ridiculous 303 applications awaiting consideration. Those already approved that have not been able to cope should have their approval withdrawn instead of being allowed to produce half-baked graduates.

  • FEC okays four new private universities

    THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved the establishment of four new private universities.

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, stated this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the first FEC meeting for the year chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Council, Abuja.

    The new universities, according to him, are Greenfield University, Kaduna, Dominion University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Trinity University, Ogun State and Westland University in Iwo, Osun State.

    He said the approvals were given because the four universities have met the criteria for establishing a university following a visitation by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

    The latest approvals bring the total number of private universities in the country to 73.

    Minister of State for Aviation Hedi Serika said the Council approved the contract for the procurement and installation of the second phase of Controller–pilot data link communications for the Kano flight information region.

    He said within the Kano flight information region is Abuja and Lagos airports, and the total contract sum is $5,403,271, which is equivalent to N1,652,320,271.80 exclusive of five per cent VAT.

    The contract, he said, is for Nigeria Airspace Management Agency.

    Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikwu said the FEC approved two memos presented by the ministry on engineering procurement construction and installation for Opoho Okoho flexible pipelines in OML 119 and Escravos to Lagos gas pipeline phase one for additional unforeseen works in engineering.

    He said: “The FEC approved two memos from the Ministry of Petroleum. One was an EPCI contract, which is Engineering Procurement Construction and Installation contract for the 12 inch by six inch Opoho Okoho flexible pipelines in OML 119, which is awarded to messrs National Oil Verco Completion and MELCURT Nigeria Ltd.

    “It is a consortium of two companies. The total contract sum was $3.7 billion. The essence of this was that in 2014, the pipeline with which we were evacuating crude in that area gave way and so production became very marginal, we were operating average of about 20,000 barrels a day as against about 37,000 to 40,000 barrels.

    “This contract is therefore to replace that pipeline with a new technological flexible pipeline…

    “The second approval was on the Escravos to Lagos gas pipeline phase one for additional unforeseen works in engineering. The contract had been given in 2008 and it was about 83 per cent complete, but additional scope has been added to that pipeline and variation of about $9 million dollars was approved today (yesterday) to the previous amount, which was about $5, 100five billion naira and one hundred and seventy seven million dollars.

    “With the nine million added today, the new contract figure comes to about five billion naira and about one hundred and eight six million dollars. That pipeline is so critical; it is what helps us move stranded gas out of the Escravos of oil region back into the Escravos Lagos pipeline. It is two months contract.”

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola said the Council approved a National Public Building Maintenance Policy and Framework.

    He said the new policy, which institutionalised a maintenance culture in the country, saying that some of the benefits of the policy would to provide an inventory of government assets, and job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Nigerians.

    He also said  the Council approved the first contract of over N800 million, for demarcation of specific area of land for the project, leading to enumeration and resettlement preparatory to construction of the Mambilla Hydro Power Project.

  • FEC approves six private universities

    FEC approves six private universities

    The Federal Executive Council ( FEC ) on Wednesday approved the establishment of additional six private universities in the country.

    The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, briefed State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The private universities, according to him, are located in Lagos, Abia, Oyo, Rivers and Niger States.

    They include:

    1.Admiralty University, Ibusa, Delta State

    2. Spiritan University, Nneochi, Abia State;

    3.Precious Cornerstone University, Ibadan

    4. Pamo University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

    5. Atiba University, Oyo State

    6. Eko University of Medical and Health Sciences, Lagos.

    He also disclosed that the National Universities Commission (NUC) is determined to carry out quality assurance in all the universities in the country in line with its statutory responsibilities.

     

  • FEC okays eight private universities

    FEC okays eight private universities

    THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved eight new private universities.

    Minister of State for Education Anthony Onwuka broke the news yesterday to State House correspondents at the end of theFEC meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He was with Minister of Information Lai Mohammed and Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika.

    The universities, he said, would be granted an initial three years’ provisional licence.

    According to him, each of the eight universities has been attached to a mentor.

    The new universities and their promoters and mentors are:

    Anchor University, Ayobo, Lagos, with Deeper Christian Life Ministry as its promoter, is to be mentored by University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    Arthur Jarvis University, Akpabuyo, Cross River, promoted by Clitter House Nigeria Limited, is to be mentored by University of Calabar (UniCAL).

    Clifford University, Owerrinta, Abia, was promoted by Seventh Day Adventist Church, and University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, will be the mentor.

    Coal City University, Enugu, has African Thinkers Community of Inquiry College of Education, Enugu, as its promoter. The mentor is University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

    Crown-Hill University, Eiyenkorin, Kwara, promoted by Modern Morgy and Sons Limited, is to be mentored by University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

    Dominican University, Ibadan, was promoted by Order of Preachers, Nigerian Dominican Community. University of Ibadan (UI) will be its mentor.

    Kola Daisi University, Ibadan was promoted by Kola Daisi Foundation and University of Ibadan (UI) will serve as its mentor.

    Legacy University, Okija, has the Good Idea Education Foundation as its promoter. Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa was nominated as its mentor.

    The minister said the government decided to approve the  universities to offer more opportunities to youths seeking admission.

    He said: “The Ministry of Education submitted a memo to council this morning seeking approval for eight private universities as recommended by NUC after serious and comprehensive and exhaustive compliance to the conditions that warrant such approval.

    “While approving these universities for licensing provisionally for three years, the universities should be mentored by some existing older universities in Nigeria.”

    Before the new approval, Lai Mohammed said the number of universities in Nigeria is 143, including 61 private universities.

    According to him, the number of universities in the United Kingdom are 229; Canada (311); Mexico (1,250), Brazil (1,648), Bangladesh (1,258).

  • Private universities may collapse soon, VC warns

    Private universities may collapse soon, VC warns

    Unless the federal government offers financial assistance to private universities, many of the institutions may collapse soon. The above is the fear of the Vice Chancellor of Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, Prof Tunji Ibiyemi. He made the statement last friday during the 9th matriculation ceremony of the institution held at the Trinity Hall of the university.

    Prof Ibiyemi noted that there was an urgent need for the federal government to help offset the extra cost incurred by candidates in private universities above their counterparts in public universities. Besides,the university don called on the government to ensure access to TetFund by all Universities in Nigeria regardless of being public or private.

    The VC also called for flexibility in the programmes being run in the various private universities, explaining that a private university may decide to offer programmes in basic medical sciences or engineering alone.

    “If the federal government fails to address these issues, many private Universities will soon collapse. This will further complicate the the sorry situation in the sector today. The outcome then will be Armageddon for all of us,” he warned.

    The university don urged the new students to shun vices that could derail their destiny or lead to their early exit from the university, calling on parents and guardians to constantly monitor their wards. A total of 256 students matriculated with 207 in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences and the remaining 48 are in the College of Social and Management Sciences.

    The VC said five new NUC approved programmes have been added for the Institution. These include B.NSC Nursing, B.SC Criminology and Security Study, B.SC Sociology, B.SC Public Administration and B.SC Mass Communication.

    The guest lecturer at the matriculation ceremony, Dr S.O Oduleye of the Department of Biological Sciences of the University urged the new students to set goals for themselves with the choices they make between now and 2019. The university’s Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Bode Ayorinde, enthused that all courses in the academic programmes of the Institution are duly accredited by the NUC.

  • Private Universities and TETFUND

    SIR: Running a university, be it public or privately-owned is not a tea party. It demands a brilliant vision; to institute and execute the right processes and procedures and getting them right, even from the beginning as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google admonished. Correct projections must be made and pro-active measures and mechanisms put in place to oil the machines of the day-to-day administration.

    Similarly, solid and stable infrastructure, high quality manpower, state- of- the- art libraries and laboratories are equally needed, all with the aim of producing top-range manpower as the engine to drive the nation’s economic growth. Obviously therefore, much money is required to achieve the lofty aims of the proprietors and chief promoters of such universities. It should be noted, that establishing private universities is not for profit but to place Nigeria in the comity of nations, when it comes to meeting international standards on education delivery and economic prosperity.

    In the light of this, it is curious, if not unjust that private universities in Nigeria are being denied access to the much-needed Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). Incidentally, part of the fund comes from the private sector, even as research findings from such citadels of learning are meant to benefit the entire nation. It is glaring fact that graduates produced from both the public and private universities enter the same perilous labour market.

    As rightly noted by much-respected Prof. Isaac Adeyemi, the Vice Chancellor of Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State who doubles as the Chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Registrar of Private Universities (CVCRPU) the repositioning of privately-owned universities for improved performance and service delivery would remain a mirage without adequate funding.

    Incidentally, that formed the theme of the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the body at the main auditorium of the prestigious Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library(OOPL) recently.

    Said he: “For private universities to be repositioned, resource verification for new programmes must be enforced and accreditation requirements (for existing programmes) must be met. Doing this will relieve private universities of the burden of dual resource verification and accreditation, with the attendant pressures.”

    This clarion call could not have come at a more auspicious time because, Nigeria has witnessed massive capital flight running into billions of naira not only to Europe, North America and South Africa, but also to neighbouring countries along the West African Coast. Unfortunately, some of these universities are either not approved by their host countries or are substandard by Nigerian standards. In addition, the fees charged by these universities are higher than what their Nigerian counterparts are currently charging! The import of this ugly development is that many parents in Nigeria lack confidence in our education system. TETFUND should therefore come to the rescue.

    Nigerians should be worried that back in the early seventies four of our universities ranked amongst the best ten on the African continent but the reverse is the situation today. This is another food-for-thought for our policy makers and those who implement them.

    • Ayo Oyoze Baje,

    Lagos

     

  • FEC approves nine universities

    FEC approves nine universities

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved the establishment of nine private universities across the country.

    The Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

    He was accompanied to the briefing by Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe and Minister of State of Finance, Bashir Yuguda and Education Minister, Ibrahim Shakarau.

    He said: “Council also at this meeting approved the establishment of nine new private universities across the country.

    “The nine new universities are Augustine University, Ilara, Lagos State; Chrisland University, Owode, Ogun State; Christopher University, Mowe, Ogun State; Hallmark University, Ijebu Itele, Ogun State.

    ” Others are; Kings University, Ode Omu, Osun State; Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, Orode, Delta State; Mountain Top University, Ogun State, Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State and Summit University, Offa, Kwara State,” he added

    Asked on government’s plan to regulate exorbitant fees being charged by proprietors of private universities in the country, the Education Minister said the government has no control over the fees.

    He explained that like private hospitals or nursery schools, owners of private universities are free to charge fees that will give returns on their investments.

    According to him, the only concern of government was to ensure that the schools are of standard in terms of facilities and staffing among others.

    He said the saving grace was that all Federal Government-owned universities are tuition-free.

    He said; “As far as government is concerned, all Federal Government universities are tuition-free. Whatever the universities are charging are so minimal for some day-to-day activities: games fees, union fees and some other fees.

    ” there is a university that is charging as low as N20,000, N15,000. Some charge N30, 000 to N80, 000 or so which is a composition of a number of different kinds of fees. But basically, no university owned by government is charging tuition fee.

    “But the private universities are like any other private institutions: private primary school, private secondary school. All that is the responsibility of government is to ensure that the standards are maintained.

    “We are to ensure that they are operating within the minimum required standard, and that is the responsibility of the NUC in terms of their facilities, staffing and so on.

    “The accreditation of any universities or courses has nothing to do with the fees they charge just like the private hospitals.

    “Government really does not have anything to do as far as what the private institutions are charging. Tuition is free in public schools,” he said.

  • Ajibola seeks support for private varsities

    Ajibola seeks support for private varsities

    The proprietor of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Prince Bola Ajibola, has made a case for government investment in private universities.

    The former jurist of the International Court of Justice said in a statement that privately-owned universities should enjoy grants from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) like their public-owned counterparts.

    Judge Ajibola said it is erroneous to think that all private universities were set up for profit. He said at Crescent, the focus is on providing sound education in an environment devoid of tribal sentiments. He explained that products of the university would be more nationalistic in their outlook because of a deliberate policy to admit students from all over Nigeria, many of them on government scholarship. In this regard, he explained that Crescent was offering a service beneficial for national cohesion.

    He said: “It must be mentioned here that several of the private universities in Nigeria are not established for profit-making but to give students sound moral education which will bring about the fear of God and good society.

    “A typical example is that of Crescent University, Abeokuta, with the vision and mission of sound education, good moral upbringing and the service to God, Almighty. We are also to ensure that the university has a national outlook. Hence, there is no state that is not represented in the university in terms of students. There are those with scholarship awards from northern and southern Nigeria. It is the belief of the university that if these students are given the opportunity to study together, relating on the same campus for three or four years, they will not grow up to hate one another in politics in future. So, admission of students into Crescent University is done without discrimination against any students by way of ethnicity, religion or sex.

    “Female emancipation towards a better, mature life is now emanating from several states of the north, particularly Kano, Sokoto and Zamfara from where students are sent on scholarship to the university.

    “To this end, Federal Government must ensure that private universities in Nigeria enjoy benefits of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) since this will further help in further development of education in the sector. Tremendous development of education is indeed sine qua non to development of any nation in the world.”