NUC Panel Indicts Two Varsities Over Part-time VC, Dean, Others

The committee set up by the immediate past Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, to look into the activities of two private universities in the country has submitted its report to the commission, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

The institutions are Ave Maria University, Piyanko, Nasarawa State, and Khadija University, Majia, Jigawa State.

Our correspondent learnt that the report, which was submitted after two months of sitting, found that one of the universities had a part-time vice chancellor while the other one had a part-time dean.

The NUC had set up the committee, headed by Prof Francis Egbokhare, and saddled it with the responsibility of looking into the activities of the universities, based on observations that they did not adhere to the laws governing them.

The NUC said reports indicated that the proprietors were being meddlesome in the running of the institutions.

According to the report, seen by our correspondent, the vice chairman of the committee, Prof Yahuza Bello, who represented the chairman, said the committee observed a plethora of issues in both institutions, “ranging from observed infractions about their governance and the management being meddlesome.”

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The committee however made recommendations, which it said would benefit the affected universities and others across the country.

According to the report, the committee observed in the course of carrying out its assignment challenge with result verification, and that both institutions were found to be “grossly understaffed as well as over dependence on visiting lecturers.”

“In addition, the committee discovered that Khadija University’s vice chancellor was a visiting lecturer, while in Ave Maria University, one of the deans was also a visiting lecturer and visits only thrice a month,” it stated.

“To worsen the situation, most of the lecturers in both institutions were part-timers which grossly affected their duties. Most of their programmes had not gone through Resource Verifications, which portends great danger and a cause for concern and had also not employed lecturers.”

Meanwhile, the report noted that the proprietor of Khadija University had invested a lot on structures and that Ave Maria had a lot of potential with the level of work done so far.

Rasheed had during the inauguration of the committee decried how the vice chancellors of both universities were hired and fired by their owners.

He had set up the committee to tackle the challenges of both institutions, with the mandate to find lasting solutions to the problems. He also charged them to look at the governance and operations of the two institutions and interrogate the management staff.