FG Names Location of Six New Varsities
From Bukola Olatunji in Abuja, 11.22.2010
Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i yesterday named Nasarawa, Taraba, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Bayelsa and Ekiti states, representing each of their geo-political zones, as the beneficiaries of the six new universities to be established by the federal government.

Rufai, who addressed newsmen on the creation of the universities Abuja said the choice of location in each zone was guided by the principle of equity. “Consideration was given to states without federal universities and the least concentration of other federal tertiary institutions in terms of existing polytechnics and colleges of education. Where the same number of institutions exists, consideration was given to states without their own universities.”

She further explained that the institutions are conceptually distinct from the current conventional and specialised universities. “They will be programme focused and shall seek to address the peculiar challenges of the zones where they are located.”
A healthy balance will also be struck “between expenditure on core academic activities on the one hand and overhead on the other, such that they will become cost-effective right from take-off with emphasis on the promotion of teaching, learning and research”, the minister further said.

Justifying the establishment of the universities, Rufai said, a total of 1, 305, 277 candidates applied for admission into universities nationwide last year out of which only 205, 170 or 16 percent of them were admitted.  She also gave the example of Bayero University, Kano, which had a carrying capacity of 5, 000 candidates, but had 39, 000 applicants, who made it their first choice. 
The six universities are therefore being established “so that as many of our suitably qualified citizens as possible can have access to university-level education and earn the higher qualifications necessary for their own self-development  and the training of the high quality manpower needed for our national development and international competitiveness.”

The minister also seized the opportunity to explain that the federal government has neither abolished the colleges of education, nor was it in the process of doing so. The colleges will continue to produce teachers for the basic level of education and the polytechnics, to train middle-level manpower for the country.

According to her, “the federal government is only desirous of upgrading them so that they can also become autonomous degree-awarding institutions as they mature. Already, four federal colleges of education and two polytechnics are awarding degrees by affiliation with federal universities. Overall, 31 federal and state colleges of education and polytechnics have NUC approved affiliations for the award of degrees.”

ladi02:

This whole move is because Jonathan wants a Federal University in Bayelsa

Lol the other 5 states are only enjoying, because He cant approve a Federal university for Bayelsa alone


Politicians will also be politicians!

The ones we have are not yet equipped, yet you go ahead and build more for your selfish reasons!

slap1:

How about ditching this idea of new unis and upgrading the existing ones to have higher students intake?

koastar:

The establishment of the six new universities is a good step in the right direction. How can a responsible govt watch only 16% of its youth gain admission in a year and the remaining 84% waste at home adding up with the ones not admitted in the previous years? This simply shows that more schools are needed. However, this is not an holistic panacea. The FG should concentrate more on sustaining these schools with the existing ones to meet universal standard.

yeye4live:

who eva posted this is a fool,

this university they re planing 2 opne now do u kno ow many trilion naira dey will put 4that,

do u kno that money well invested can creat alot of job for unemployed youth,

u guys should wake up here we dont need more than 10 uni to b a great nation,

do u kno ow much waz used to build the dubia or how many uni re ther in GHANA,

UP TILL THIS MONENT I TINK WE VE STILL NOT GOTEN A LEADER DAT HAZ WISDOM

slap1:

You are not making any sense.

yeye4live:

who eva posted this is a fool,
this university they re planing 2 opne now do u kno ow many trilion naira dey will put 4that,
do u kno that money well invested can creat alot of job for unemployed youth,
u guys should wake up here we dont need more than 10 uni to b a great nation,
do u kno ow much waz used to build the dubia or how many uni re ther in GHANA,
UP TILL THIS MONENT I TINK WE VE STILL NOT GOTEN A LEADER DAT HAZ WISDOM

zuma4good:

good idea for new varsity but some kind of bad location

koastar:

The establishment of the six new universities is a good step in the right direction. How can a responsible govt watch only 16% of its youth gain admission in a year and the remaining 84% waste at home adding up with the ones not admitted in the previous years? This simply shows that more schools are needed. However, this is not an holistic panacea. The FG should concentrate more on sustaining these schools with the existing ones to meet universal standard.

Dis Guy:

+1

Private sector cant handle the matter as of now, there needs to be government intervention at some point, hope they increase funding or make some percentage of excess crude oil solely for education funding

they might even privatise some of them in the future

osholey:

It is not quantity but quality that is the problem with the university system.

FG should try and fund existing universities and not establishing new ones. the govt should concentrate on making the environment right for private sector to invest in building universities.

Nigeria is losing billions of naira as capital flight to the UK as many of her citizen go there to get the quality education not available here, even Malaysia and other Asian economies are benefiting from the influx of Nigerian students.

This move by GEJ is purely political not strategic, atleast his home state now has a university but he would have emulated his PDP challenger Atiku and build a private university in yenogoa.

cheap politics that's all it is