An associate professor of Political Science at Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State, Dr Sikiru Nurudeen, has called on the National Assembly to review the Act establishing the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) with a view to accommodating private universities in the Fund’s interventions.
Nurudeen, who spoke with LEADERSHIP in Ilorin said that TETFund interventions on infrastructure in public higher institutions should be replicated in private universities in the country.
“We are making the appeal to the authorities concerned, especially the National Assembly, to look into how private universities can also benefit from TETFund, in a more tangible form. Currently, I think the approach is that they say, lecturers in private universities can pair with those in the public universities to access research funds, but that is not enough.
“We are speaking of infrastructure.
If you look at most public universities, federal and states, including Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, their campuses are littered with projects funded by TETFund. Such can also be replicated in private universities so that they can also have the opportunity of benefiting from this fund, which is a national fund.
“The argument is that they assume that owners of private universities are very rich. But it is not always the case. To run a university is an expensive venture, just like you have said. The capital layout to start it, and the cost of running it effectively is so huge that without support, it may not be easy for the owners to be able to run them effectively and efficiently”, he said.
Nurudeen, who is also the deputy vice chancellor at Al- Hikmah University, called on universities to train their students to be future employers of labour to stem the problem of unemployment in the country.
He said, “I think that should be the objective of most universities, if not all universities. The NUC is helping us by introducing what is called CCMAS-Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards. Before now, we used to have what was called Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards(BMAS).
“The intention of CCMAS was to give the university the opportunity to also add 30% to the courses in each programme. Hitherto, the NUC used to provide 100 percent, but now we have been given the opportunity to introduce our own uniqueness into the programme.
“So, with that, we have taken the opportunity to introduce skill acquisition, entrepreneurship development and vocational studies into our curriculum. Our GNS programme has also been enriched to ensure that our students are given the right frame of mind to make them not seek jobs after graduation but rather to become employers of labour themselves,” he disclosed.
