VC seeks 20% TETFund subvention to private varsities

Vice Chancellor of Renaissance University, Ugbawka, Enugu State, Prof. Thaddeus Chukwuka Eze, has asked the Federal Government to support private universities with at least 20 per cent funding from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to lessen their burden.

He stated during the 15th matriculation ceremony of the school, saying since students in private universities are Nigerians, whose parents directly or indirectly contribute to the TETFund pool, there is need for private universities to benefit from it.

Eze argued that since it was convenient for the government to grant approval for establishment of private universities, it should also not allow their owners to bear the responsibility of running those schools alone.

Noting that there are over 200 young men and women being provided with tertiary education in Nigeria, Eze said: “This is certainly not a number that government alone can grapple with through its public universities. Besides, in more developed climes, it is evident that private universities are more in number and are thriving to meet educational needs of people with the active support of government of those countries.

“We can borrow a leaf from them. It is not about public or private ownership but the ability to cope with and meet tertiary education needs of people. I will not hesitate to suggest that government should encourage the already licensed and running private universities with at least 20 per cent of TETFund subvention to universities and other tertiary institutions to enable them assist in absorbing this large student population, which government at both federal and state levels cannot handle through its highly space limited public universities.”

Noting that Renaissance University was licensed in 2005 as the first private university in the Southeast, Eze said the institution had set out to give a new face to university education, by inventing a carefully structured and uniquely implemented curriculum, aimed at producing an all- round man with skills for digital economy, who would always be preferred to other graduates in all sectors of the economy.

He warned the matriculating students that cultism, use of hard drugs and sexual harassment or abuse of any type were forbidden in the school and would attract instant expulsion.

Eze further disclosed that all its academic programmes had been accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other relevant bodies, such as Council of Legal Education for their law students, among others.