The Vice-Chancellor of Bowen University, Iwo, Prof. Jonathan Babalola, has described as unfair the Federal Government’s exclusion of private universities from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
Speaking in Iwo on Monday ahead of the university’s 21st convocation, Babalola said the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Registrars of Private Universities had made several efforts to get the government to extend the funds to private university researchers and students, without success.
He urged the Federal Government to recognise the contributions of private university researchers to nation-building, arguing that support could be channelled directly to individuals as Nigerians, rather than to institutions, to address government’s concerns about funding private agendas.
The Vice Chancellor lamented that top researchers in private universities are being wasted due to lack of support, noting that Bowen alone has several scientists ranked among the world’s best, while some beneficiary public universities have none.
“And government will say because they are in a private university, they don’t need help. That is why I said it is unfair. If you all contribute, you must all share. If the money is only from government, fine. This is an opportunity to tell government, let us do what is right. I understand the problem is that they think, okay, how can we support somebody else’s agenda?
“But we can do it directly to the individual students who are Nigerians. So if you are giving a research grant to Bowen University, let the research grant be to the lecturer directly. So that you say, okay, it’s Nigeria that is benefiting from the output of the research and not the university itself.
“I am sure there are ways of circumventing what the Federal Government has as its fear. But I think we must not lose the fact that we are all Nigerians,” Babalola stated.
On the convocation, the VC announced that 1,443 graduands will be conferred with degrees, comprising 1,345 undergraduates and 98 postgraduates. Of the undergraduates, 218 bagged First Class, 657 Second Class Upper, 315 Second Class Lower, while 86 will graduate with MBBS degrees.
He listed major achievements in the outgoing academic year, including full accreditation for all eight programmes presented to the National Universities Commission – Surveying and Geoinformatics, Biochemistry, Industrial Chemistry, Pure and Applied Biology, Religious Studies, Architecture, Medical Laboratory Science and Doctor of Physiotherapy.
Babalola said the feat affirms the quality of the university’s academic offerings, faculty competence and sustained investment in facilities and learning resources.
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