The National Universities Commission (NUC) on Tuesday granted provisional approval to four new private universities to commence academic programmes.
Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary, NUC at the presentation of the licences to the universities in Abuja said the four universities; Greenfield University, Kaduna State, Dominion University, Ibadan, Trinity University, Laloko, Ogun State, and Westland University, Iwo, Osun State had been under scrutiny since 2006.
Rasheed underscored the need to increase the number of universities in the country, taking into consideration the country’s 200 million population adding that with the approval, Nigeria now has 79 private universities, and a total of 173 universities, private and public.
He said “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”.
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“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”, he added.
Rasheed speaking further said that the commission was currently processing about 270 applications.
Malam Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, said the emergence of private universities had provided an environment for heavy competition that stimulates improvement in quality service delivery.
The minister who was represented by Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar, JAMB, said the approval was a clear manifestation of the continued mutual partnership between the government and private sector to ensure the provision of quality education.
