State University VCs Demand Autonomy on Admission Policy

The Association of Vice-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities has asked the federal government to allow the senates of their institutions prescribe the modalities for admission.

The Secretary General of the association, Michael Faborede, stated this at the 4th Biennial Conference on the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria held at the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

The theme of the conference is “Current Challenges Facing State Universities in Nigeria and the Way Forward.”

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, recently announced the scrapping of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UMTE).

Mr. Faborede argued that since education was on the concurrent list in the 1999 Constitution, the federal government should be careful in making pronouncements on educational matters that would affect the states and private universities.

“The issue of post UTME is also very hot now. We have emphasised to the minister, the right of each university senate to prescribe the modality for admissions and also that education matters that will affect the state and private universities,” he said.

The secretary-general called on pro-chancellors to support vice-chancellors in this effort in the interest of a credible university system.

Mr. Faborede said the association would in October hold a higher education summit to enable it chart a way forward for the nation’s higher education system.

He said the outcome of the biennial conference would be important in the effort to bring all view points on board.

Mr. Faborede called on all state governors to use the Nigeria Governors Forum to ensure the maintenance of standard of state universities and how the could benefit maximally from the Tertiary Education Tax Fund.

“We believe that the Governor’s Forum is very crucial to ensuring the maintenance of standard of state universities, and how they benefit maximally from the Tertiary Education Tax Fund,” he said.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Tai Solarin University of Education, Olufemi Bamiro, said “a cursory examination of the goings-on in the tertiary education system of this country attests to the crying need for a conference of this nature to articulate the challenges facing the system and move to the solution domain by coming up with evidence-based policies and programmes to move the system forward.”

He added, “The present situation in the country dictates that we go beyond political correctness into imbibing the traditional academic culture of telling it as it is. It cannot be otherwise if this conference is to be worth the effort of all gathered here.”