University lecturers in public universities are advising the government to halt any plans to establish new universities and, instead, focus on adequately funding existing ones. They argue that current universities suffer from malnourishment due to insufficient funding and are plagued by a shortage of lecturers and staff. This advice comes in response to the National Assembly’s consideration of legislation to establish 35 new universities.
Representatives of the lecturers, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), expressed concerns about the potential misuse of universities as constituency projects by lawmakers. ASUU’s National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, emphasized the need to address existing challenges, such as poor funding and inadequate facilities, before creating new institutions.
CONUA’s National President, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, stressed the importance of providing more opportunities for admission seekers but cautioned against establishing new universities without the means to fund and staff them, as it would exacerbate existing problems.
Osodeke questioned lawmakers’ understanding of how universities operate and urged a focus on addressing the current issues faced by universities rather than creating new ones.
In his view, Sunmonu said public universities in the country were currently malnourished, as poor funding was making them gradually grind to a halt.
He said: “Without sounding contradictory, I would say we need more universities as the number of admission seekers left in the lurch yearly is too high.
”There are two ways to approach the issue, we can set up new ones or expand the capacities of existing ones. But it will be a great disaster if we set up new ones and continue with the trend of poor funding of our universities. It will simply compound our woes.
“Even if we are going to expand the capacities of existing universities, we still need to fund the universities properly. If we are to expand the capacities of existing ones, what we need to do is conduct NEEDS assessment and go round the universities to know what they need and and how to expand their capacities.
“Once the needs of the universities are met, they can expand and admit more students. Even the new ones they are proposing, who is going to man them?
”Before, it is lecturers from public universities that were servicing private ones, now almost all the universities are experiencing inadequate staffing. Lecturers and other staff members are leaving in droves.”
Sunmonu wondered if the lawmakers knew what university education meant and what it stood for.
