The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has advocated for management of budgets of Nigerian universities by the National University Commission, NUC.
This is even as the Registrar noted that the autonomy of public universities can be better achieved under NUC. He noted that if the NUC is left to manage the budgets of tertiary institutions in addition to its role as the regulator that accredits courses in schools, the schools will do better.
Oloyede, who is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, made this disclosure on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande. The programme which is a socio-political was aired on Channels Television, on Monday.
The JAMB Registrar noted that university education is so sensitive and the government should allow experts to administer the institutions.
Oluyede supported his call by the recent development where each public university now approaches the National Assembly to defend their budget. The Registrar faulted the trend because the institutions in the process get whatever they want based on the people they know and the influence they wield.
“We can still re-engineer the situation to have the things we need. We need to look at the funding mechanism. The National Universities Commission (NUC), for example, should be left alone to run the universities. Hold the National Universities Commission responsible for the management of the universities.
“I was Chairman, Committee of Vice Chancellors and I was involved in re-organizing and retooling of the National Universities Commission. When the NUC was in charge, things were done well. I strongly believe that the autonomy that we are talking about for our universities can be better achieved if we allow the NUC to coordinate the affairs.
“Now, every university goes to the National Assembly for their budget, and for their defence. And the more you can pull the weight, the more will determine,” Oloyede said,
According to him, when the NUC managed the budget of universities, there was the Universities Annual Review System. Which looked at how many candidates universities have across disciplines. And it used that to determine the next year’s budget.
“Whether you know anybody or you don’t, does not come in. The NUC will determine the parameter number of students and so on. And it is the NUC that will defend that at the National Assembly and the Ministry of Education,” he said.
The Registrar also pointed out that when the NUC was in charge, the money going into capital development was high. He regrets that now, it has fallen because universities now have too many support staff.
Oloyede, therefore, envisaged a situation where public universities would get funds based on the number of students they admit.
He said, “I believe that the way we are running and the way we are funding, it could get to a level that we will say: University of Abuja, you are producing XY medical doctors. What does it take to train one medical doctor? This is the quota we have given you. So, we now calculate (the amount). Both your capital and your recurrent expenditure won’t be our business. And we would have built research into it to ascertain the amount.”
Oloyede insisted that Nigeria does not need more universities. He emphasized the expansion and equipping of current universities in the country for better performance.
The Registrar lamented a trend where politicians now compensate marginalized communities with the creation of universities. Which is against the establishment of factories and industries that would provide employment.
source: Channels TV
Follow us for more news on our WhatsApp News Channels @
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaC505jB4hdZ5Yx9g82U