Private varsity asks NUC to increase quotas for student admission

The Peaceland University in Enugu has urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to increase the quota given to universities for student admission.

Felix Ugwuozor, the pro-chancellor, spoke at the private university’s second matriculation ceremony in Enugu on Friday.

About 700 new students participated in the matriculation.

Ugwuozor said more students would have been admitted but the institution was hindered by the quota given to it by the NUC.

“We admitted over 600 students within the four faculties of the university. The number would have been more, but because of the NUC policy, faculties admitted limited numbers,” he said.

“There is a need for NUC to increase the number because there are many students on the list who could not be admitted.

“The manpower in medical sciences is lowering because many of our doctors and nurses are leaving the country, so there is a need for universities like ours to admit more students in its programmes.”

Peaceland University came into legal existence in the 2023/2024 academic session with four faculties and 33 departments.

Earlier, the minister of education Tunji Alausa said Nigeria’s 138+ private universities account for only 7.5 per cent of undergraduate admissions in the country.

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

The minister said there is a need for Nigerian universities to grow their undergraduate enrollment capacity.

In 2023, the Council of Legal Education (CLE) handed out a five-year ban on law admissions at Baze University, a private institution, for “serially” violating its approved intake quotas.

In 2025, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) suspended law admissions in eight tertiary institutions purportedly for similar reasons.

TheCable reported that the NUC recently 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 these institutions to better serve the needs of the public.