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.”
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