The Imo State University, Owerri, and an Abuja-based
educational services company are embroiled in a satellite campus and university admission racket through which they tricked thousands of students into paying over N150 million in illegal fees , an investigation by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting has revealed.

The company, Diamond Lecture Centre, has for years operated an illegal satellite campus purportedly belonging to the Imo State University, in the process admitting and running classes for thousands of students in business and management-related courses.

The Diamond Lecture Centre charges each student N80,000 tuition fees and currently has  some 2,000 students in 100, 200, 300 and 400 levels, with the final year set currently taking their final examination.

However, the National Universities Commission, NUC, has declared that the campus, which operates out of the Festival Primary School, Area 10, Garki, Abuja, is illegal.

The commission said neither Imo State University nor Diamond Centre has any approval to run either a satellite or any other kind of campus in Abuja.
Not only that, the tertiary education regulatory body also says that any degree awarded to any students through such a bogus and illegal scheme would not only be illegal but would also not be usable to seek employment in Nigeria or anywhere in the world.

That leaves the fate of nearly 2,000 students who are currently on admission at the fake and illegal campus in the balance. Interestingly and curiously too, authorities of the Imo State University have also disowned Diamond Centre and distanced itself from the satellite campus it claims it runs for it in Abuja.

This is in spite of the fact that Diamond Centre uses the university’s course outline, handbooks, letterhead and stationeries in the admission and teaching of students.
Investigations by icirnigeria.org revealed that Diamond Centre has operated the illegal satellite campus in Abuja for many years and would have admitted up to 10,000 students by now.

Our investigations show that most of the students of the campus are professionals such as bankers, civil servants or business people who do not have the time to undertake the rigours of normal university education.
With lectures conducted only on Saturdays and Sundays, such cadre of professionals finds it convenient to run weekend programmes.

But there is nothing about the classes conducted by Diamond Centre that resembles anything close to a university education and even some of the students agree that granting degrees through such a process is an aberration.

First, the lectures are held in the most unsavory environment. When our reporter visited Festival Primary School, Area 10,Abuja, what he saw was shocking. Lectures were being held in decrepit, moldy, smelly classrooms with broken furniture and dilapidating walls.

Apart from this, posing as a student, monitoring the lectures and speaking to some of the students, our reporter found that the quality of teaching was abysmal.
The lecturers operated mainly a “handbook education” policy whereby they sold handbooks to students which they are supposed to read to pass examinations.

But the lecturers do not even bother to prepare their own notes but just download handouts from the websites of other educational establishments on the Internet. For example, the whole handbook on Analysis for Business, a course for 400 Management students, was downloaded entirely from the Internet with no input from the lecturer.

Apart from this, many students also complained about the lecturers with many of them wondering if they had university degrees because of what they called ”their intellectual shallowness”.

For this kind of substandard education, the students actually pay through the nose. Apart from the N80,000 tuition fees, final year students are forced to pay N30,000 for their final year project to be approved.

Besides, every student who is unlucky to fail a course and has to carry it over till the next session is forced to pay N5,000 before he or she can sit and write the examination for the ‘carryover subject”.

The students, who spoke to our reporter also complained that they are forced to pay N5,000 to attend workshops conducted by Diamond Centre for other institutions in Abuja...

Continues here:
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/99937-imo-state-university-private-firm-scam-students-of-millions.html

...And Nigeria keeps playing kite with people's lives.

How long have they been operating?whats gonna happen to those that have already graduated?who gave them the permit to Operate?NIGERIA MY NIGERIA WHEN SHALL THOU BE FREE

I hope de student, will not burn d school down

Since university part-time programme has been turned into money making opportunity for Nigeria university, the scam had since become a lucrative venture.

This is "Chop and Clean Mouth"

The students must be very stu.pid to have fallen for this scam.

Imo State University is very notorious at running satellite campuses even against NUC's guideline. There is one currently going on in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

The position of NUC is that no University should run a part-time program outside the parent institution.

I really don't understand why an Illegal school will run for 5 years without anyone (people and government) knowing its all a scam

Why call this a scam? this is just an arrangement

Is there anything like a legal campus scam?

There is another stupid satelite campus of an unknown university in GHANA @ IFE TOWN.i nearly got into there trap if not 4 my father's friend who saved me.NUC should trying checking newspaper adverts and the netwk it wil help a lot

I am not suprise because the nigerian government and its ministries are busy doing nothing.How can a school like that exist for that long without the ministry of education being aware.This type of school also exist in my town claiming that they are affliated with ECUMENICAL Enugu.The ministry of Education should start doing there job and not to sit at there office waiting for salary at the end of the month.

Deprofessional: Imo State University is very notorious at running satellite campuses even against NUC's guideline. There is one currently going on in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

The position of NUC is that no University should run a part-time program outside the parent institution.

U dey craze

Oops

I think the National University Commission NUC has no right to remove accreditation of a university or its satelite campuses in their law establishing NUC. From the ruling of the National Assembly Education committee over that private universities accreditation saga. It can only give recomendations and proposals

there are lots of weird satilite campuses of unknown universities all over the place, they better start closing all of them down one by one.

I do not support illegal campuses, but NUC should not stifle the educational yearnings of Nigerians. Most adult learners are not able to attend regular classes in main campuses.

The NUC should set standards for satellite campuses and regulate them vigorously. That is what they are paid to do. By now they should have come up with guidelines and framework for online campuses even. NUC, please enforce your standards, don't stifle initiatives. Imagine the pain of investing huge resources in educational activities that lead to nowhere.

This post has been hidden

This people are indirectly going to make many commit suicide....to me, i wil commit murder or even genocide starting wit one of their crazy lecturers.

The only people I have issues with are those "adults" who subjected themselves to that academic embarrassment under the guise of securing a degree. No one else.

Nigeria is a very funny and complicated entity...Its only in Nigeria that Elephants fly in the afternoon and no one is scared. How can an Illegal higher institution be running for years and from the look of things, people have graduated from this fake and money eating venture. Its so unfortunate putting the future of young Nigerian in a state of Ogamoga. I rest my case

Help us o LORD

Baba God,see reasoning by men..haba..dis na plus for G boys..naija is blessed wit talents..anybody can fall