FG: Private varsities account for only 7.5% of Nigeria’s undergrad admissions

Tunji Alausa, the minister for education, says there is a need for Nigeria’s private, state-owned, and federal universities to grow their undergraduate enrollment capacity.

The minister also said Nigeria’s 138 private universities account for only 7.5 percent of undergraduate admissions in the country.

Alausa briefed the press in Abuja on Thursday about the federal government’s planned reform for the sector.

TheCable earlier reported that the National Universities Commission (NUC) increased the “processing fee” for establishing private universities by 400 per cent.

The NUC stated that the decision was part of its efforts to reposition private universities to better serve the needs of the public.

Alausa said some private universities lack substantial admission capacity, with many of them boasting of no more than 1000 students.

“There is so much pressure on the president. Today, I can tell you that there are almost 200 bills in the national assembly covering university students. We can’t continue this,” he said.

“Even with the ones we have, the capacity for universities to admit is not there. What we need to do now is to rebuild our capacities and offer more viable courses to our citizens. Today, we have about 64 federal universities, 68 state universities, and 138 private universities.

“If you put the entire enrollment together, the 138 private universities account for just about 7.5 per cent of total undergraduate enrollment. Even in the 64 federal universities, the total undergraduate enrollment today is about 875,000 which is abysmally low.

“We have universities with less than 1000 undergraduate students. And there’s still intense clamouring for more universities. We have to stop that.”

Alausa said the ministry plans to mobilise resources to develop infrastructure, build engineering workshops, build laboratories, and recruit lecturers of international standard to ensure that public universities deliver high-quality education.

“The president has given tentative approval. We are working on the document to address that,” he added.

“We’re talking about inadequate take-off grants. The type of takeoff grant is dependent on the number of federal and state universities that we have. The grant amount is the numerator and the number of universities is the denominator.

“As the denominator increases, the ‘x’ number which is equal to the grant reduces. This is why we have to stop this deluge [that arises] from just opening universities.”