Lagos – The Vice Chancellor of Crawford University in Igbesa, Ogun , Prof. Rotimi Ajayi, on Tuesday called for the inclusion of private universities as beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s created Tertiary Education Trust Fund “TETFUND’’.
Ajayi said this on the sideline of the press briefing as part of the
activities marking the 10th anniversary and seventh convocation of the university.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the private Christian university was established in 2005 by the Apostolic Faith Mission.
The V-C said “The Association of Vice-Chancellor of Private Universities has been calling for the inclusion of private universities on the list of beneficiaries of the fund to assist the universities deliver on their mandate.
“The fund is meant for the development of manpower, training and research for the beneficiaries and I think the private universities are also involved in the same responsibilities of producing manpower.
“Another issue is that most of the funds generated from TETFUNDS are from private organisations, so private universities should also benefit from the commonwealth.
“Private universities can use the fund to equip their libraries,
engage in researches, training of their personnel; all these will help to achieve same goal,’’ he said.
Ajayi advised the new Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu ,to urgently review the budgetary allocation to universities across the country.
“As we speak now, there is a dearth of qualified personnel to
teach in our universities, there is a need to develop developmental policies whereby we can train more personnel.
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“Old universities such as the University of Ibadan could be saddled with the responsibility of training personnel at post -graduate level who will provide the needed requirements.
“The minimum requirement to teach in university is doctoral degree which is currently lacking in most universities and this has accounted for the poor quality and low standard of education.
“The new minister should make sure that there is an increase in
budgetary allocation to the universities as there are many shortfalls in infrastructure and personnel that we need to redress,’’ he said.
Ajayi also commented on the successes recorded by Crawford University, a decade after it was established by the
He said that the university had fared well in delivering the mandate of its founding fathers.
We have ensured that we operated within the ambit of the university’s motto, “Knowledge with Godliness’’.
This , we had done, by producing graduates that are not just academically sound but those that are God’s fearing and impacting positively on the society.
“This has formed the reason for the theme for this year’s convocation which is, “Our Products- Our Joy and Testimony,’’ he said (NAN)