The NUC's acting executive secretary Chris Maiyaki.
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has identified poor governance, corruption in academia, and inadequate funding as some of the critical issues affecting tertiary education in Nigeria.
Chris Maiyaki, the NUC’s acting executive secretary, spoke on Tuesday during a lecture at Babcock University in Ilishan, Ogun state.
The lecture was themed “Role of the administrator in changing university environment: issues and prospects”.
Maiyaki said there has been a decline in Nigeria’s university system over the past three decades in comparison to earlier periods.
He said the current tertiary education ecosystem is plagued by social vices, manpower shortages, economic pressure, and incessant strikes.
“We had our glorious years but then we had the downturn. There are a lot of factors for that. Economic pressure, gradual decline in funding. The value of the naira in real terms is no longer enough,” the NUC boss said.
“Some of these are also attributed to poor governance systems. We have fallen short in procuring state-of-the-art museum modern journals, books, and laboratory equipment in some cases.
“We need more PhDs. We need to stabilise. The system has suffered a lot of instability due to a combination of factors.
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“We need sustained constant funding and so many things to be done.”
Maiyaki urged university administrators to embrace technology and artificial intelligence to revolutionise their institutions.
He said there is a need to broaden focus and build relationships with external stakeholders for the growth of higher education in Nigeria.
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“All hope is not lost as we have some good and cheery news to report. Nigeria has shown improvement in the university rankings. That shows that, despite everything we’re going through, we have shown a lot of resilience,” Maiyaki added.
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