ABUJA—In a bid to address the issues of access to university education, the Federal government on Tuesday, presented provisional licences to four new private universities in Nigeria.
The four private universities were approved by the Federal Executive Council(FEC), at its meeting of Wednesday, January 9, 2019.
The Universities are; Greenfield University, Kaduna; Dominion University, Ibadan; Trinity University, Laloko, and Westland University, Iwo.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, noted that the the ceremony is a clear manifestation of the continued mutual partnership between government and the private sector in the provision of quality university education in Nigeria.
He stated, that the emergence of private universities in Nigeria has created an environment for healthy competition that stimulates improvement in quality service delivery in the system.
Adamu, who was represented by the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, congratulated the proprietors of the Universities for persevering through the processes culminating on the approval.
According to him, “You were selected among several other active applicants. Therefore, it is expected that you will work hard to ensure the highest standards envisaged through the adoption of best practices, in order to achieve academic excellence in your programme focus.
“The provisional approval for the four Universities to operate, is intended to create room for effective mentoring and qualitative growth within the first three years of their operations.
“It should be noted that, Substantive Licence will only be issued to the Universities if they are adjudged as being well-governed after the three years of probation following their respective performance and growth, within guidelines stipulated by the Commission”, he remarked.
He further noted, that the government is committed to continuous strengthening of the National Universities Commission’s quality assurance operations, to ensure that quality and relevance are not compromised.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission(NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, stated that efforts must continue in the direction of establishing more Universities for enhanced access.
He, however noted, that the Commission is not ready to sacrifice access on the altar of quality, adding that the NUC will keep beaming its searchlight on the governance of the private universities, to ensure adherence to best practices in support of quality University education delivery.
The approval of the four Universities, brings the number of private universities in the Country to 79, Federal Universities to 43, state universities to 47, making it a total of 169 Universities in Nigeria.
