272 More Varsities Underway as Existing Ones Hit 173 *NUC gives provisional licences to four

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has given provisional licences to four private universities, thereby increasing the number of private universities to 79, while state and federal universities are 48 and 46 respectively, bringing the total to 173.

Also,  to tackle the issue of access and carrying capacity as well as expand and attend to the increasing manpower need of the Nigerian economy,  272 applications for more universities are currently being processed by the Commission.  

The NUC Executive Secretary,  Prof. Abubakar Rasheed who made the disclosures during the presentation of provisional licences of operation to the new universities in Abuja on Tuesday, said the new institutions are Greenfield University, Kasalami, Kaduna State;  Dominion University, Ibadan, Oyo State; Trinity University, Laloko, Ogun State and Westland University, Iwo, Osun State. 

Rasheed said it took so long for some of the universities to come to the present stage due to stringent measures that have been out in place to guarantee quality, adding that private universities do not have to be necessarily big once the vision can fly and contribute to national development. 

He said: " I believe we are going to have more universities because we are currently processing about 272 applications. Many of them are active and if you notice,  we are somehow reinventing the concept of universities.

"Private university doesn't have to be another big university like ABU,  Ibadan or Nsukka. You can have a small university that it's maximum might will not have more than 2000 students. It might just enrol 500 in a year and in four years have 2000. All we are interested in is quality.

"If universities can focus in excellence and build capacity in small areas,  we will be happy. With the new universities coming in,  it doesn't mean we are duplicating everything. Another thing is that we are reviewing. All the universities used to start with the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences but we said no,  let us look at the manpower needed in this country and the interest of the proprietors.
"If you want to start with engineering and can provide the faculties, then we allow you. If it's with medicine and you can provide a hospital and the required staff,  then we grant licence," he added.
He enjoined all the proprietors of the new universities to ensure that availability of human and academic resources are not pushed to the back seat.