The National Universities Commission (NUC), said preparations are being finalised to announce the opening of two new universities in the nation, bringing the overall number of educational establishments to 272.
Chris Maiyaki, the interim executive secretary of the commission, made this statement on Thursday while speaking with reporters in Abuja.
According to Maiyaki, the NUC will keep approving new colleges in order to close the nation’s admissions gap.
He pointed out that although two million applicants apply to institutions annually, there are only between 500,000 and 700,000 spots available for admission.
Maiyaki’s stance comes amidst the fight of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other stakeholders in the tertiary education sub-sector against the proliferation of institutions in the country by the government at the Federal and State levels.
Stakeholders on numerous occasions said the establishment of new universities amidst poor funding of existing ones was not the way to go and hence had called on the government and the NUC to halt approvals given to new public universities.
“We have no choice but to as a matter of deliberate policy undertake the massification of universities,” Maiyaki said.
He said what separates the developed today from other countries is the level of investments in education.
Maiyaki said every year, almost two million candidates seek admission into the universities but only between 500,000 and 700,000 students get admitted.
He said, “You need to see the anguish and the frustration on the faces of families who are desperate to make sure that their children attend university education every admission session. It is very tough and challenging for university leaders and NUC and so we have no choice but to continue to approve the universities.
“The approval for two more varsities to bring the number of universities in the country to 272 has been concluded and will be announced next week.”
He maintained that Nigeria will continue to widen universities’ access by approving more universities to meet its demands and supply of quality education.
While noting that countries like Brazil, Indonesia and others who have a population not up to Nigeria have more than 1,000 universities, he said efforts were ongoing to reposition the university system through transnational education by allowing foreign varsities to come in and operate in the country.
The Executive Secretary said the commission is presently processing applications for the establishment of distance learning centres that will be monitored to provide quality education.
The NUC boss, however, stressed that it does not mean the era of establishing distance learning centres is back.
Reacting to a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission inviting proprietors of private universities and other institutions of higher learning in Nigeria to charge fees in dollars, he said no tertiary institutions is allowed to charge tuition fees in dollars.
He said the commission had made an inquiry into the allegation and thus investigated but discovered that the said private university was not charging fees in dollars.
“On the dollarisation of tuition fees in this said university, we have investigated it and the university is not charging fees in dollars.
They only charge dollars to foreign students. So I want the media to join hands with us to tell the public that no Nigeria university is allowed to charge fees in dollars,” he said.
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