VCs ask NUC to reconsider hike on private varsity establishment fee

Some stakeholders in the education sector have called on the federal government to revisit its recent upward review of the application fees for the establishment of private universities.

TheCable earlier reported that the National Universities Commission (NUC) increased the “processing fee” for establishing private universities from N5 million to N25 million.

NUC also increased the fee for purchasing application forms for the establishment of these universities from N1 million to N5 million.

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

NAN reports that stakeholders in the tertiary education sector say the hike must be reviewed in the interest of mass literacy.

In a series of interviews, they expressed concern that the hike would reduce the number of applications to private universities and also force private universities to begin taxing students who already find it difficult to pay their fees.

Benjamin Ozumba, former vice-chancellor at the University of Nigeria, said the review was like a “thunderbolt” to stakeholders as there were no prior negotiations before it was enforced.

He said the upward review was uncalled for, because tertiary education in Nigeria is undersubscribed, relative to global standards.

Ozumba said the NUC is using the policy to reduce the number of applications which will hinder mass literacy growth in the country.

The former vice-chancellor advised the federal government to take a clue from Germany which has no private universities but the government invested heavily in the public universities.

He argued that Nigeria’s state universities are not doing enough as they have overpriced tuition.

“What we should be considering is looking for ways to improve our public universities by providing adequate funds to improve infrastructure in public universities to be of global standards,” he said.

“So many private universities are doing well, take for example, Lead University, Covenant University, Redeemers University, Afe Babalola University and the rest are performing well,” he added.

“They are filling the gaps the public universities are not able to fill. So, this review by the NUC is a rough tactic that won’t take us anywhere as a nation.”

Contrarily, Noah Yusuf, the vice-chancellor of Al-Hikmah University in Kwara state, argued that the hike sets a quality and sustainability threshold that will address the proliferation of private universities.

He said anyone who wants to set up a private university has to be prepared.

“They must have the financial strength to pursue it. NUC’s decision will be based on their experience in terms of some universities that started but they cannot continue,” he said.

“They cannot go ahead with operations and are just hanging in limbo, you can’t go ahead, you can’t go backwards. And I’m sure that should be the reason.”