The National Universities Commission (NUC), has given provisional
approval to four new private universities to commence academic
programmes.
Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary, NUC at the presentation
of the licences to the universities in Abuja on Tuesday, said the four
universities had been under scrutiny since 2006. The universities are:
Greenfield University, Kaduna State, Dominion University, Ibadan,
Trinity University, Laloko, Ogun, and Westland University, Iwo, Osun.
With the approval, Nigeria now has 79 private universities, and a
total of 173 universities, private and public. Rasheed underscored the
need to increase the number of universities in the country, taking into
consideration the country’s 200 million population. He added that with
the country’s population, only about two million students can access
university education.
“Only less than 6 per cent students’ enrolment is in private
universities. We hope the NUC work closely with you to ensure we
introduce courses that are more attractive to prospective students and
more appropriate to our current move to reposition the education system
in Nigeria.All over the world, private initiatives are welcome. Proper education
cannot be handled by government alone. The NUC is not ready to
sacrifice quality on the altar of access; we must ensure adherence to
quality; we do not want to encourage you to run the university with
impunity.’’
Rasheed added that the commission was currently processing about 270 applications in which many of them are active for approval.
