From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Universities Commission (NUC) said it was unhappy with the level of achievement recorded by the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) years after it was established.
Its Registrar, Prof. Rasheed Abubakar, who led delegation of NUC officials on a courtesy visit to the school campus in Abuja last week, described as ‘regimented’ and ‘elitist’, the enrolment policy being operated by AUST management.
He said: “We are seriously concerned with that. How can AUST deliberately choose not to grow? The poor enrolment in AUST was obviously deliberate. If all universities in Nigeria chose to adopt the same style of admission and operation as AUST, then there would be chaos and riot on the streets.
“If scholarship is the basis for admission into AUST, then you can obviously not grow because there are limited resources for scholarship. It is advisable to open up the system for those who have no scholarship but could afford the cost.”
AUST acting President, Prof. Charles Chidume, in his response, thanked the NUC officials for the visit and promised to take the advice to the board for further discussion.
He was concerned that the school is faced with shortage of facilities and that could hamper its chances of admitting more students who might be interested in science and technology, as well as mathematics.