The Honourable Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, has stated that the establishment of more private universities was an antidote to the proliferation of illegal universities and degree-awarding mills, which had become a menace to quality university education in the country.
The Minister stated this on Thursday, 5 March, 2015, during the presentation ceremony of provisional licences to nine new private universities, at the National Universities Commission (NUC) auditorium, Abuja.
Mallam Shekarau informed the promoters ofthe new universities that their institutions would be affiliated to older generation universities for mentoring, explaining that the institutions would be mentored on academics and administration, while the NUC, as the regulator, would conduct regular visits to ensure that the new universities remained on the path of growth.
He added that the provisional licenses were intended to create room for effective mentoring and qualitative growth within the first five years of the institution’s operation, as substantive licenses would only be issued to well managed universities after three years of probation.
The Honourable Minister advised the promoters of the new universities to ensure that quality remained their watchword in all their activities.
He informed them that the NUC would monitor their activities for early-warning signals in order to detect compromise in quality and suggest corrective and remedial measures to redress such situations.
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