FG approves establishment of 1st private varsity in Kano

The Federal Government at its meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, has approved the establishment of another Private institution, Skyline University.

The institution is said to be the first private university in Kano state.

The approval of this institution has increased the total numbers of Private Universities in Nigeria to 74.

Currently, Nigeria has 163 universities: 47 of which are state-owned, 42 are owned by the federal government and 73 are privately owned.

Meanwhile, the National Universities Commission has hinted about the approval of 292 private universities.

NUC may approve 292 more private universities soon

The Executive Secretary of Nigeria’s National Universities Commission, Abdul Rasheed Abubakar while speaking at the annual conference of the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency, said that the NUC was processing 292 applications from institutions that hope to become private universities.

The approval of the universities according to the NUC boss is meant to address the growing youth population of admission seekers in Nigeria.

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''Only 19 percent of the 2 million students who applied to university were accepted last year, with about 30 percent either going abroad or pursuing vocational studies.

''This is a very serious situation – 1 million students do not get access to university not because they have failed their exams, but because the capacity [to admit them] is not there,”

“It is a dangerous thing to have this problem of frustrated youths who are left out on the streets,” he said.

However, according to NUC most of the yet-to-be-approved private universities are specialist institutions, such as private medical schools and creative arts colleges.