A PROFESSOR SPEAKS ON THE POOR GLOBAL RATING ON NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, has related the poor rating of Nigerian universities globally to  inadequate funding.

He urged the Federal and state governments, as well as the private sectors to dedicate more resources to the funding of education, so as to remove those challenges that make the nation’s universities to attract less  recognition globally.

The Professor stated this in a paper titled: Can The Bones Rise Again? A Peep Into The Revitalisation Of The Nigerian University Reform, which he delivered at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti during the institution’s 23rd convocation ceremony.

He added that the university system would continue to fail in Nigeria until poor staffing and insecurity, among others were dealt with before the country could rise to stardom in its higher education reforms and global rating.

He said it was pathetic that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) established by the Federal Government to fund tertiary institutions, could only give financial support to a few universities, not all, making others to develop at slow pace.

Describing the development as a serious impediment to the growth of Nigerian universities, Okebukola advocated radical curricula reforms by the NUC to promote the new ideal of entrepreneurial education that would make students self-employable and relevant in the labour market.

 He added that Nigerian universities are having a lot of challenges, but funding is the major challange. It has caused  poor power supply, poor information and communication technology (ICT) network, low students’ enrollment and poor infrastructure in our universities.

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