28 October 2009
Abuja — The Federal Government last week announced the granting of licences to enable seven new private universities to operate. With that approval, the number of recognised universities in the country rose to ninety-six, thirty-four of them private.
The new ones are: Wellspring University, Uvbuobanosa, Edo State; Paul University, Awka, Anambra State; Rhema University, Obeama-Asa, Rivers State; Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Osun State; Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State; Godfrey University, Ugwuomu-Nike, Enugu State; and Nigerian Turkish Nile University, Abuja.
While announcing the approval of the new private universities after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council, the Minister of State for Education, Hajiya Aishatu Jibril Dukku, said the approvals were made to improve access to higher education in the country. To underscore the inadequacy of the current situation, Mrs Dukku noted that only 220,000, or less than 20 percent of the 1.3 million candidates that sat for the 2009 matriculation examination, would be admitted because of the limited spaces in existing universities.
We welcome the government's realisation of the lack of capacity of the current number of universities, and appreciate the efforts in tackling it. Indeed, it is part of the government's statutory responsibility to ensure that every Nigerian desirous of higher education gets it at a cost that is affordable and realistic. However, we wonder whether more universities, rather than improving and expanding existing capacity, would be the way to go. By its very nature, a functional university system goes beyond the physical structures. That is why we are not enthusiastic about this new exercise, because there has not been any report, either by the government's National Universities Commission, or another independent monitoring agency assessing the performance of private institutions that the government has licensed in the last ten years.
It is instructive that Mrs Dukku, in trying to justify the issuance of the seven new licenses quoted statistics comparing universities in the United Kingdom and the United States (USA) with Nigeria. According to her, the 96 universities in Nigeria (including the seven yet to take off), cannot compare beside the thousands in the UK. We would like to remind the minister that despite the huge number, universities in the UK and the US are well-equipped and have access to variety of sources, including government, for their funds. While numbers are important, quality is the ultimate for any viable system of higher education.
Besides, Britain and America require more number of universities than there is at present in any African country because of the number of candidates that apply for admissions in to their institutions of higher learning. Recent statistics show that there are about 65,000 Nigerians currently studying in various universities in America. More Nigerians want to go to study there because of the high standards in those universities have attained over the years. It is for the same reason that there are more Nigerians than ever before seeking admission in universities in neighbouring Ghana and in countries in Asia, that were not better than Nigeria three decades ago.
Government must improve existing Nigerian universities and expand them to be better able to absorb the millions whose hopes for higher education are dashed each year due to lack of space. Probably because our own system has failed that has made it attractive for foreign private initiatives to seek participation in education that has become a lucrative business in Nigeria, unfortunately. Since policy is still evolving, we would advise that private participation in university education should in the future be limited to research grants. We also advise government to strengthen existing public universities in terms of funding and provision of adequate teaching and learning facilities. A more efficient way of monitoring private universities should be employed to check sharp practices among them, which exploit hapless candidates and still fail to deliver on quality. We also suggest that annual monitoring and evaluation reports of existing private universities should be made public and used as basis for further issuance of licenses to prospective applicants to establish new ones.
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