At 40, UNIJOS is too old for take-off grants — NUC boss

No take-off grants will be approved for the University of Jos (UNIJOS) because it has existed for too long, says the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie.

Speaking at the university's combined 27th and 28th convocation and 40th anniversary, Okojie said a 40-year-old university should not be seeking take-off grants.

"The issue of take-off grants has been debated over time," Okojie said.

"A university at 40 cannot be asking for take-off grants."

According to a Daily Trust report, the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Dr. Don Etiebet, had earlier said the UNIJOS had not received any take-off grant since its establishment.

“It is worthy to note that 40 years after establishment, this university is yet to get take-off grants,” the former Petroleum Minister said.

Etiebet called on the Federal Government to revisit the issue, noting that the university's growth has been impeded.

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But Okojie said the university cannot receive any take-off grant which has been overtaken by other government interventions which UNIJOS has benefitted from.

“What has government done through TETFUND to have instituted what we call a Special Impact Intervention?

"Those universities have received that, I think University of Jos has done that too."

The NUC boss also urged universities to operating multiple campuses.

"I want to advise universities against multi-campus system.

"When you have many campuses, you spread your resources around and they don’t make much impact”.

UNIJOS was established in October 1975 by the military government of General Murtala Mohammed and has since "produced over 150,000 graduates from its regular and part time undergraduate programmes", according to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Hayward Mafuyai.

READ: UNIJOS is 9th preferred nationwide, 3rd in Northern Nigeria — VC

Before then, it was set up in November 1971 as a satellite campus of the University of Ibadan (UI).