Four new private varsities get provisional licences

The Federal Government has issued provisional licences to four new private universities.The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, yesterday in Abuja presented the licences to the representatives of the tertiary institutions.

The beneficiaries are Greenfield University, Kaduna, Kaduna State; Dominion University, Ibadan, Oyo State; Trinity University, Laloko, Ogun State and Westland University, Iwo, Osun State.The approval brings the number of private ivory towers nationwide to 79.

With 43 federal and 48 state universities, Nigeria maintains its top spot as the nation with the largest university system on the African continent.Adamu said the award was to create room for effective monitoring in the first three years of their operation, adding that substantive licenses would only be issued to them based on performance during the probation period.He noted that the approval would further address the issue of access to university education in the country.

The minister said: “It is worth noting that Nigerian private universities have contributed (immensely) in the last 20 years and will continue to contribute to the opening up of access for the growing population of candidates seeking university education.“The emergence of private universities in Nigeria has created an environment for healthy competition that stimulates improvement in quality service delivery in the system.”

He warned that government would not tolerate any forms of breach, stressing that anything in contravention of the National Universities Commission (NUC) guidelines would attract appropriate sanctions.The Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, informed the gathering that the institutions had undergone a rigorous assessment.He pointed out that the nation could only meet its yearly demand for access to university education when more private universities were established.
Congratulating the proprietors on the occasion, Rasheed, however, warned that the commission “is not ready to sacrifice quality on the altar of access.”