Inadequate manpower, poor budgetary allocations bane of university system in Nigeria – NUC

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has highlighted the challenges facing the higher education system across the country.

In a statement issued on Monday by its Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Administration, Chris Maiyaki, the NUC said the ratio of students to available universities was abysmal considering the role education plays in national development.

The statement read: “The entire system has about 2.1 million students and staff strength of about 170,000 non-teaching and 100,000 academic staff.

“Some of the problems facing the system include increased running cost, meagre budgetary allocations, issue of power shortages and shortages of manpower.

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“There is a need for universities to be isolated from the Federal Government’s circular on an embargo on new employment because of the peculiarity and distinctive nature of the universities in order for them to keep up the pace in attaining comparable standards with their counterparts globally.

“We also have incessant interference in the NUC’s functions by some professional bodies and associations, which have continued to issue needless instructions to universities.

“Other challenges in the Nigerian university system include the issue of digital response to COVID-19 lockdown.

“Within the period, the NUC had been conducting some activities, which included major curriculum review, assessment of universities on their E-Learning requirements, strengthening of quality assurance mechanism as well as fortifying modern methods of data processing and retrieval.”

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