- Nigeria Needs More Private Universities
Vice-Chancellor of the Nigeria Turkish Nile University, Prof. Huseyin Sert, has said that Nigeria needs more private universities to support the Federal Government’s effort to provide tertiary education.
Sert made this statement in response to the growing concern for the proliferation of privately-owned universities in Nigeria.
Speaking with journalists in his office in Abuja, Sert said that government alone could not meet the educational needs of all Nigerians.
He said, “Nigeria needs more private universities and more private schools. Turkey didn’t have any private university in the 1990s. Now, it has about 300. The Federal Government cannot support everything. As a private organisation, this is our responsibility.”
The VC also said that while 17 per cent of the students of NTNU were currently on scholarships, more undergraduates would be added to its scholarship scheme.
He noted that students who scored at least 270 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and had good O’ level results were usually offered scholarships to study in the institution.
“We select the 100 best candidates in the UTME and invite them to join us. If they get any international medals from Olympia, this university is free for them. Next year, we are going to expand our scholarship opportunities by 20 per cent”, he said.
Also, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of NTNU, Dr. Steve Adeshina, said there was no longer free education in the country.
If the standard of education must be maintained, Adeshina argued, Nigerians had to pay for it.
He said, “If we compare the school fees paid in colleges in Europe or America, you will find out that what we are paying here is relatively about 10 per cent of what they are paying abroad.
“If our concern is to bring the kind of quality that exists outside this country, you know it cannot be free if the standard is going to be maintained. It is not exploitative in anyway.”
