Gabriel Dike

Vice-chancellor of Christopher University (UNICHRIS), Prof Friday Ndubuisi, has made a passionate appeal to the Federal government to include private universities in the list of tertiary institutions that should receive grants from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

The management of UNICHRIS, which include the Registrar, Mr. Aloyious Udeoke and acting Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Head of Mass Communication, Dr. Nick Idoko made the call when it was received at Sun Publishing Ltd by the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh, alongside the Editor, Daily, Mr. Iheanacho Nwosu; Editor, Saturday, Mr. Femi Babafemi; Editor, Sunday, Mr. Chidi Nnadi and Business Development Manager Mrs. Nkiru Obeki.

Prof Ndubuisi, who stated this on Wednesday during a courtesy visit to the corporate Head Office of the publishing outfit, recalled that private universities produce graduates as manpower for national development, thus contribute their quota to nation-building.

Giving reasons why private universities should benefit from TETFund grant, the VC said the money is contributions from the private sector which will be used to improve their research and infrastructural development to enhance the production of quality graduates for the industries.

One other major reason the Federal government should extend the TETFund grant to private universities, he said is that they pay huge tax.

Prof Ndubuisi also debunked the claim by the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, that lecturers in the Nigerian University System (NUS) do not know how to write a research proposal to secure grants for their research, thus the huge fund is un-accessed.

His words: ”I disagree with the executive secretary of TETFund that lecturers do not know how to write research proposals. I don’t believe that a Ph.D. holder cannot write a good research proposal.”

According to him, university lecturers write and defend the research proposal and when it is taken to TETFund, officials in their wisdom will reject them.

On the high number of First Class degree awarded by private universities, the UNICHRIS VC said the students merited the grade, stating that in public universities, lecturers are strict marking.

”The issue of lowered standard in private universities is not true. The standard is high in private universities. Abroad, if a student merits 100 percent, it will be given. I think that private universities award First Class when a student merits it.”

He also debunked the insinuations that private universities are into university education to make a profit, adding ”anyone going into a private university is giving back to the society. It is a project that has a long gestation period.”

Said he: ”It was a good decision that government allowed private universities to come on board in 1999. In the next ten years, private universities will become more attractive.”

In his remarks, the Registrar, Mr. Udeoke said UNICHRIS was licensed in 2015 but academic activities took off in 2016 with 13 approved courses by the National Universities Commission (NUC) which are due for accreditation in October. He disclosed that the Faculty of Law building would soon be completed.

Receiving the team, Mr. Ukeh gave a brief history of The Sun Publishing Ltd and described the paper as a national paper which is widely circulated and read in the country.

Ukeh disclosed that the paper was making a strong impact on the education sector with the publication of four pages of education stories every Tuesday.

”We are interested in education, if our education system is not good, we will continue to produce half-baked graduates. Private universities have helped Nigerian parents and the quality has improved,” Ukeh stressed.

He used the opportunity to seek a strong partnership with the university and commended the management for piloting its affairs in the last four years.