Nigeria University Educations |NUC Suspends Admission Into Part-Time Programmes In Nigeria

UNC: On The two chambers of the National Assembly have constituted many panels and committees with sweeping powers bestowed on them without any checks and balances. If not, the recent jaundiced and retarded decision by the Prof. Julius Okojie-led National Universities Commission to suspend part-time programmes in Nigerian universities requires the House of Representatives and Senate to undertake an immediate investigation of the operations and activities of the commission.

For so many years, proprietors of private universities as well as state and federal universities have been confronted with innumerable rudderless policies churned out by the NUC. In some instances, these proprietors and chancellors have turned to the court of law for relief without success. They have sought the help of the parliament to no avail. No where in the world has a government audaciously bestowed a sweeping power on an administratively bankrupt syndicate to operate within its ministry of education. All over the world, the primary goal of similar bodies as the NUC is to offer advice and provide strong leadership and guidance to universities in order to strengthen and enhance their progress for the common benefit of students, and ultimately the nation.
The National Universities Commission (NUC), took the nation by surprise when it, last Monday, announced the suspension of part-time programmes across the Nigerian universities. Making the announcement, Prof. Julius Okojie, the Executive Secretary, NUC, attributed the suspension to the need to sanitie the system and regulate the programmes to conform with laid-down guidelines of the commission for running part-time programmes.

“Many students study illegally under the part-time programme system. Very soon we would do staff and student audit,” he said. “For now all part-time programmes have been suspended. We are going to streamline them, no university should have more than 20 per cent of their student population on part time with excess capacity to teach. All part-time programmes must be located on campus. We do not want satellite campuses anymore.