VC, others call on TETFund to extend grants to private varsities

Vice chancellor of Precious Cornerstone University (PCU), Ibadan, Prof. Julius Oloke and foremost industrialist, Chief Bode Amoo have restated call on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to extend its grants to private institutions.

They made the call during the second matriculation of Precious Cornerstone University (PCU), recently held at Olaoogun, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Oloke, who disclosed that 102 students were admitted into different programmes in two faculties of applied sciences and social and management sciences, hinted that private universities are playing critical role in the sector, wondering what could have happened to huge population of students in the country seeking university education.

He said: “Overpopulation is one of the main challenges confronting education in Nigeria. As a result of explosion of students’ population in many of the public universities in Nigeria, facilities are grossly inadequate for training students. Consequently, in many of the public universities, it is becoming difficult for students to fully acquire the skill needed to face life realities.

“At Precious Cornerstone University, we have the number of students that our facilities can cater for. So students that come to PCU will be given the needed skills to face realities of life. To address the challenge of overpopulation government should give more license to private universities.

“The future of Nigeria is in the private universities. Also, grants should be given to private universities. The TETFund grants should be extended to the private ones because TETFund is the tax collected from private organisations. Government should find a way of incorporating private universities into the scheme since it is being collected from private organisations. TETFund is collecting tax from private to finance public institutions, I think government should listen to us.”

To the freshmen, he said: “As a Christian-based university, we are positioned to not only train you to be highly competent professionals, but also to assist you to be spiritually sensitive.”

On his part, Amoo, who was the guest lecturer stated, “Private universities should be encouraged by giving grants and modern teaching facilities. Government policy should not discourage the establishment of more private universities. This will help in producing quality graduates of international standard.”

He maintained that private universities are more effective and beneficial when compared to public institutions because of their style of administration, teaching methodology, funding, discipline, stable academic calendar and others.