The African Centre for Educational Development (CLEDA Africa), an NGO, says proliferation of private universities in the country will reduce stiff competition for admission into public universities.
The Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Daniels Akpan, said this on Friday while reacting to Wednesday’s approval of 20 new private universities by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Akpan told the Newsmen in Kaduna that the proliferation of universities in the country was a good development considering the huge population of youths seeking university education.
According to him, the establishment of private universities across the country is reducing admission pressure, particularly on public universities.
“With fewer universities, if you do not know someone, who knows someone that knows someone, it is almost impossible to secure admission even when you pass the requisite examinations.
“But with more and more private universities springing up, the rich have the option of getting admission for their children in private universities.
“This is helping to free up some space for the children of the poor who can only afford public universities for their children,’’ he said.
He added that the establishment of 20 new private universities would significantly increase access to university education in the country.
Akpan noted in spite the reasonable number of public and private universities in the country, many students still struggled to secure admissions without success due to lack of space and stiff competition.
“For example, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had revealed that more than 1.2 million candidates sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in 2019, of which only 612,557 were admitted.
“In 2020, the number of applicants skyrocketed to 1.9 million and given the available space, more than a million will not be admitted.
“The newly established private universities will absorb more than 80,000 applicants if each of them admits at least 4,000 candidates,” he said.
He added that the development would equally provide job opportunities for the teeming graduates in the country who would be employed as academic and nonacademic staff, security, and cleaners among other opportunities.
Akpan said the new universities would also increase the production of manpower and human resources needed to efficiently exploit the nation’s abundant natural resources.
“Even the host communities will witness socio-economic transformation and urbanisation,” he said.
The executive director, however, noted that the proliferation of universities also has its negative side, particularly the ability of the universities to deliver quality education.
He pointed out that Nigerian universities both public and private were grossly underfunded
According to him, poor funding of the university system undermines the ability of the universities to equip the Nigerian youth with creative and innovative skills required to move the nation forward.