NUC says there are 1.9m students in Nigerian universities

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This information is contained in the 2017 universities’ statistical digest which was presented by the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed at a two-day retreat for governing council members of the Nigerian universities in Abuja on Tuesday, May 8, 2018.

The NUC Boss also said that 51,000 people are currently engaging in academic work in various universities across the country adding that it was a discouraging statistics that ought to be improved upon.

Rasheed, however, confessed that when he was newly appointed in August 2016, there was no reliable statistical data to plan his programmes adding that the lack of data affected the pace of his work.

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He said, “I was totally disturbed that we could not lay our hand on a verifiable statistics that would have to help us with our plans for our universities. That made me to spend my first year as NUC boss studying some obvious inaccurate statistics being brandished in different quarters regarding the current situation in our Nigerian universities.

“I was forced to contact various stakeholders and they requested that I constitute NUC strategic advisory committee led by to carry out the audit of universities in 2017 and we are glad about what we got''

The NUC Boss, however, promised that the statistical digest would be published every year to highlight the development and situation of the Nigerian Universities.

NUC may approve 292 new private universities

Meanwhile, the NUC is making effort to address the growing youth population of admission seekers in Nigeria.

Rasheed said that the NUC was processing 292 applications from institutions that hope to become private universities.

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