The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities on Friday called for the introduction of tuition in Federal universities to support funding of the universities.

This is contained in a communiqué signed by Prof. Kimse Okoko, Chairman of the committee, in Abuja.

The communiqué decried the resistance to introduce tuition in some universities by the Academic Staff Union of Universities and Students’ Union Government.

According to the communiqué, the resistance is based on the argument that the introduction of tuition may take university education beyond the reach of the poor.

It stated that avenues for finance for indigent students includes the revival of the student loans schemes, bursaries and scholarship, education bank, among other initiatives, should be put in place.

The communiqué also stated that students who could afford to pay should be allowed to do so.

It also stressed the need to reposition the Nigerian public university system for global competitiveness in the 21st century, adding that increase funding was critical to achieve the repositioning.

The pro-chancellor said that government could not single-handedly fund the university system and pull it out of its current state of rot in spite of its best efforts and intentions.

The communiqué resolved that universities must explored new sources of funding, such as grants from local and multilateral agencies and joint venture investments.

It also urged the universities to explore facilities in the capital market, endowments, research for industries, and alumni endowments, among others.

The pro-chancellor urged universities to be more entrepreneurial in their operations and leverage on their areas of comparative advantage to partner with industries in their localities.

"The university councils should endeavour to work within the present constraints to initiate new directions, working within the laws that established them,’’ it stated.

It further urged government to boost the internally-generated revenue of universities and enhance their relevance.

The committee of pro-chancellor advised governments to patronise university departments and consultancy services in the execution of contracts and to involve universities in collaborative research with potential to directly impact on national development.

It also advised universities’ councils to take steps to increase their internally-generated revenue from 10 per cent to 30 per cent as an initial strategic initiative.

The pro-chancellors said that the university system must enjoyed full autonomy if it were to be repositioned for global competitiveness in the 21st century

It stated that such autonomy would enable the councils of universities to initiate steps capable of transforming the nation’s university system.

The pro-chancellors stressed the need for universities to invest in their host communities to ensure harmonious relationship with these communities.

- NAN

roland2rule: PLS HOW CAN I LEAD REVOLUTION AGAINST THIS FUTURE DESTROYERS

penny01502: this a short way of saying education should be only for the rich

iwonbaoko: Please name one country with a population over 100 million that gives free university education. Only one example please.NOTHING in this life is free.The handwriting has been on the wall a long time.Nigerians have an attitude of ENTITLEMENT and that explains partly why you see 27 year olds living at home with their parents collecting pocket money. We need less university education and more vocational TRAINING.
Are those people in universities better than those who learn trades? Does government contribute anything to the training of tailors,mechanics,Bricklayers,Vulcanizers etc How are those cultists in universities claiming to be studying economics and politics etc more deserving of government funding than those training as hairdressers and butchers or poultry farmers??
I believe that education should be free up to the age of 18 i.e secondary school or Vocational training.
University education of good quality cannot be free.We should not compromise quality because we want everyone to have it
This is how universities should work:
The universities should operate like a petrol station. No pay no admission
They should be stand-alone entities independent of government.
They should determine the actual cost of educating each student .Without this information we are deceiving ourselves.
Sometime people just refuse to look into the mirror because they are afraid of what they might see.
Having determined the cost we can now have a discussion about how to pay for it. That way the issue of underfunding universities will not come about .
Government will then declare how many students they can afford to pay for and how they are going to allocate those resources. Otherwise government forces universities to over-admit and we end up with students sitting on the floor and aisles.

iwonbaoko: Please name one country with a population over 100 million that gives free university education. Only one example please.NOTHING in this life is free.The handwriting has been on the wall a long time.Nigerians have an attitude of ENTITLEMENT and that explains partly why you see 27 year olds living at home with their parents collecting pocket money. We need less university education and more vocational TRAINING.
Are those people in universities better than those who learn trades? Does government contribute anything to the training of tailors,mechanics,Bricklayers,Vulcanizers etc How are those cultists in universities claiming to be studying economics and politics etc more deserving of government funding than those training as hairdressers and butchers or poultry farmers??
I believe that education should be free up to the age of 18 i.e secondary school or Vocational training.
University education of good quality cannot be free.We should not compromise quality because we want everyone to have it
This is how universities should work:
The universities should operate like a petrol station. No pay no admission
They should be stand-alone entities independent of government.
They should determine the actual cost of educating each student .Without this information we are deceiving ourselves.
Sometime people just refuse to look into the mirror because they are afraid of what they might see.
Having determined the cost we can now have a discussion about how to pay for it. That way the issue of underfunding universities will not come about .
Government will then declare how many students they can afford to pay for and how they are going to allocate those resources. Otherwise government forces universities to over-admit and we end up with students sitting on the floor and aisles.

Apatheist:
LMAO.
Do you know they don't pay school fees in Finland?
Do you know they don't have oil?

If we are to pay fees we should adopt the bursary and student loan system used in the USA.

iwonbaoko: What is LMAO? is that short hand for poverty of ideas?
What is the population of Finland?? under 6 million= less than Lagos State
What is the GDP per capita $36000 and Nigeria $1800 = 20 times that of Nigeria
Nigeria has a GDP per capita of $1800 = 270000 Naira . This is NOT all government money but the TOTAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT of the nation

Bear in Mind that the Federal Government has only a fraction of that(10%) e.g with its recent budget of 4 trillion = 26 666 Naira per citizen
Finland is 20 times richer than Nigeria.
The FG with a budget of 27000 Naira per citizen will subsidize petrol , give you free education,build roads and pay salaries

Your analogy is like an okada rider's son saying that he wants a Blackberry phone because Dangote's son has one

What I wrote which I hope you read before your unsolicited quote is clear.
Is there any country with a population of 100 million that offers free university education.

Of what relevance is oil to the discussion. FYI oil is less than 30% of our GDP and not all the revenue from oil goes to government

Is money derived from oil different from money derived from selling fish or chicken? http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PETR.RT.ZS
It is shameful that we have adults who presumably have been to some kind of tertiary education program who cannot analyze logically.

Apatheist:
A country with a tiny population makes more money than Nigeria. You must be proud of yourself.

No they won't. Even if you had 10 times that amount they'll still embezzle it.


Nigeria is more populated and has oil. All other things being equal we should be one of the richest nations on earth. A tiny country with the population of Edo state i# richer b] far a;d gives you millions in aid yearly. You should hang your head in shame.


What has population got to do with education?
With a small population they're many times richer. Now imagine them with our population.

Gdp is different from foreign income.
90% of your earnings is from oil.

No, but oil is more valuable and we have it in excess.

roland2rule: PLS HOW CAN I LEAD REVOLUTION AGAINST THIS FUTURE DESTROYERS

iwonbaoko:
I am sorry but your "mentality" as Fela would call it is low. You do not have the tools to debate this subject.
Your father should not just hang his head but hang himself

iwonbaoko: That is sentiment. Going to university is not the only way to get educated. The more important question is what is the cost of one university placement of good quality. Lagos state claims it is about 500000 naira a year which for a 4 year programme is 2 million naira in 2010 there were 1.5 million admissions which would come to 3 trillion naira for 4 years or .75 trillion annually or 15% of the FG on University education alone for 1% of the population .In my book 15% of the budget on 1 % of the population does not make sense especially when you consider that this is just on their education they will still benefit from other parts of the budget e.g health etc just like everyone else. We need to learn to analyse more and stop being sentimental.

Samakinr:
...you actually mean there are 1.5 million admissions per year in Nigeria?...methink you are wrong. Though i reason with your position, i still won't succumb to it. In the UK, the cost of studying MSc genetic medicine for an international student is £22,000, for a UK citizen it is just £7,500...with an option of applying for a student loan which is payable over a course of 10yrs. M talking of the University college, London, the GDP is beyond $35,000. The thing is nobody is saying we shouldn't pay for tuition....but the fact is that we cannot pay tuition in a country with a GDP of $1,500, with an unemployment rate of 17%....in a country in which a professor earn only $20,000! And the minimum wage is $110. Let the country correct these anomalies then i would personally lead the march for the support of tuition payment. But for now, that pepper seller (who make only averagely 300 a day) must be able to train his child to become a doctor in any public institution on this shore.

iwonbaoko:
There is a difference between the COST and the PRICE of thing in this case fees as far as the UK is concerned. What I am talking about is the cost of providing the service by the provider. The fees for home students in England are subsidized partly and 100% in Scotland. I do not like to engage in arguments without facts. The issue is not about whether it would be nice for everyone to have university education. The issue is what does it cost to provide quality education and how many slots can we afford annually. If we decide we want to do that fine but we must budget for it. To admit 10000 people into a school designed for 1000 asking students to sit on the floor is self deception.
We must remember that students are not the only stakeholders.Employers are too.Even if we deceive students and their parents by awarding them degrees that do not pass muster can we deceive employers? Employment is competition. Do we not do our students a disservice if we allow them to acquire degrees that are clearly inferior to other degrees?
We must put a price on education and BUDGET for it then we will know what we caan and what we cannot afford that is how logical countries operate not on speculative guesses that "we ought to be able to" etc all of that is meaningless.

penny01502: this a short way of saying education should be only for the rich