Some private varsities aiding academic corruption – JAMB registrar

The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, on Monday stated that some private universities were aiding academic corruption and decadence in the country.

Oloyede spoke in Abuja at the opening ceremony of a two-day summit on Nigerian private universities, themed, “Private University Education Delivery in Nigeria; Challenges and Opportunities,” organised by the National Universities Commission.

He said, “The government opened up space a few years ago for private operators to come and complement government’s efforts at providing university education to Nigerians, but it seems like the aim is gradually being defeated.

“When you visit some private universities, you will be ashamed for Nigeria. From the structures, you will know that something is wrong. If you take a deeper look, you will discover more decadence and rot in their operations. Some of the proprietors choose to run the universities like a family business and it ought not to be so.”

NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed in his remarks said the commission was currently processing about 303 new applications for the establishment of new private universities in the country.

“Also, 208 out of the 303 applications are already on Step 3 in the processing of their applications, while 63 applicants are in Step 6, having submitted their completed application forms and strategic documents and are awaiting the first verification visit,” Rasheed added.

In the interim, JAMB said it had suspended 49 Computer-Based Test centres for various wrongdoings in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

This is just as 649,922 candidates had yet to take their exams as of Monday, which was supposed to be the last day of the 2019 UTME.

The board, which disclosed this on Monday in a bulletin obtained from the office of the JAMB Registrar, noted that over 50 impersonators were also arrested by security operatives, some of who schemed with the proprietors of the CBT centres to engage in malpractices.