The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has called for a structural reform in the funding of public universities in Nigeria, advocating for the National Universities Commission (NUC) to manage university budgets alongside its role as a regulatory body.
Prof. Oloyede, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, made this proposition during an interview on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Sunday.
He emphasized that university education is a sensitive sector that requires expert management rather than political interference.
He criticized the current system where individual universities approach the National Assembly to defend their budgets, arguing that this method favors institutions with political influence over merit-based allocation.
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“We can still re-engineer the situation to have the things we need. We need to look at the funding mechanism. The National Universities Commission (NUC), for example, should be left alone to run the universities. Hold the National Universities Commission responsible for the management of the universities,” he stated.
Prof. Oloyede, who was once chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, reminisced about a time when the NUC effectively managed university budgets, ensuring equitable funding distribution.
He highlighted that during this period, the Universities Annual Review System assessed student enrollments across various disciplines and used the data to determine budgetary allocations.
This system, he asserted, prevented undue influence and ensured that funds were distributed based on academic and infrastructural needs.
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“When the NUC was in charge, the money going into capital development was high. But now, it has fallen because universities now have too many support staff,” he observed.
The JAMB boss suggested a model where funding for public universities is directly linked to the number of students admitted.
He proposed a structured approach where financial support would be calculated based on the cost of training students in various disciplines, particularly in specialized fields like medicine.
“I believe that the way we are running and the way we are funding, it could get to a level that we will say: University of Abuja, you are producing XY medical doctors, what does it take to train one medical doctor?.”
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“This is the quota we have given you. So, we now calculate (the amount). Both your capital and your recurrent expenditure won’t be our business. And we would have built research into it to ascertain the amount,” he explained.
Additionally, Prof. Oloyede voiced concerns over the proliferation of universities in Nigeria, stating that rather than creating more institutions, existing ones should be expanded and properly equipped.
He criticized the trend of establishing universities as political compensations for marginalized communities, advocating instead for the establishment of industries and factories to drive economic growth.