The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Abubakar Rasheed, has appealed to the Federal Government to adequately fund tertiary education in Nigeria.

Rasheed, who made the plea at the 2023 National Reunion Conference of Obafemi Awolowo University Muslim Graduates Association (UNIFEMGA), said the major challenge confronting the sub-sector is gross underfunding, which affects teaching, learning and research.

The NUC chief who spoke on the theme: “Funding of tertiary education in Nigeria: Issues, trends and opportunities,” enjoined the government to inject more money into the system.

Rasheed, who was represented by Prof. Shehu Ado, lamented that poor funding of the sector contributed to the low education standard.

He solicited private sector involvement in education, saying the government alone cannot do it.

“The universities are producing graduates who lack skills for employment and creative ability. There is a need for universities to generate income to complement government efforts.

“Brain drain in our university system is caused by a non-conductive learning and teaching environment and some other issues and these need to be corrected,” he stated.

He identified other challenges confronting the sub-sector to include obsolete equipment and incessant disruption of the academic calendar.

Rasheed said while the government needs to increase funding, institutions should endeavour to identify other areas where they could get funds to continue their work.

“I was surprised when a Youth Corps member was asked to give the full meaning of NYSC and he couldn’t. This exemplified the deteriorating state and quality of graduates produced by our universities.

“Amongst other issues affecting our Tertiary Education is the archaic curriculum, which ought to be redesigned by injecting realities of time as the world is moving on a rapid note, lack of skilled workers, graduates with no skill and self-confidence.”

Yusuf Ali (SAN), who chaired the occasion, tasked the government at all levels to look at other funding parameters for tertiary education. He also stressed the need for parents to be ready to pay fees.

He said: “Nigerians send their children to foreign universities and pay huge school fees. People pay exorbitant fees in secondary schools and yet they couldn’t pay for university education.

“The agitation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities for better pay is genuine. There is a need for the government to pay lecturers what is commensurate with their contributions to be able to retain them in the system and avoid brain drain.

“Individuals that God has been kind to in terms of material provisions should assist the university system. When students pay school fees, the government can now come to assist them through scholarships and other facilities,” he stressed.

The chairman appealed to the government to continue to play its role and urged everyone to join hands to ensure that Nigeria gets the kind of universities it deserves.
Similarly, UNIFEMGA’s National President, Olanlege Abdul-Fattah, said there is an urgent need to tackle challenges in the sector.

Abdul-Fattah said a lot needs to be done to make university education curriculum more relevant, including redesigning of policies to enable the university system to be self-sustaining.

He called for changes that will make the university system more autonomous, urging governments to tackle challenges in the education sector to make positive things happen in the sector.

“Prolonged university calendars and archaic curriculum need to be stopped and we must act fast because the world is coming down to our youths.
“They are learning by themselves now, doing a lot of things on the Internet and acquiring skills to make them relevant to the world. The youths are now seeing tertiary education as irrelevant, which can make university education redundant,” he warned.