The Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof Abubakar Rasheed has given the approval for the upgrading of three existing higher institutions in Delta State to universities due to high demand for degrees programmes.
Prof Rasheed who gave the approval on Friday when Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and his entourage paid him a visit to present strategic documents of the universities and Recognition of the universities, said, “We need to tell ourselves the truth, we need more universities.”
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The upgraded institutions are College of Health Education, Agbor, now University of Delta, Agbor; Anwai Campus of Delta State University, now Dennis Osadebe University, Abraka; and Delta University Ozoro now Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro.
The NUC boss said the approval has put the total number of public varsities in Nigeria to 98, with 45 federal universities and 53 state universities, adding that the three upgraded universities makes it six universities in Delta state, making it the state with the highest number of universities in Nigeria.
Speaking, Governor Okowa said the state assembly passed an executive bill on Monday to upgrade the institutions to full-fledged universities.
He said the decision was as a result of high demand for degree programmes in the state and low subscription to Polytechnics as well as failure of the existing universities to admit the number of secondary school graduates seeking for admission in the universities.
“In Delta State University, for 2019/2020 admission, 25, 896 candidates choose the university as first choice, out of which 22, 358 qualified but only 4, 854 (20%) candidates were admitted.”
“Regrettable those who are unable to secure admission because of limited space were forced to seek admission in various expensive and non accredited programmes in either private universities or mushroom universities in other countries, schools that are not comparable to even the worse of our universities,” he said.
As a government, we cannot allow this to continue, a situation where our youths are forced to take substandard degrees is not acceptable and certainly, it’s counterproductive, he added.
While noting that they still have existing polytechnics and Colleges of Education, he said, “We believed that the action is going to help us consolidate on tertiary education and ensure that resources are actively utilized in the best interest of the people of the state.”
Meanwhile, NUC boss advised the governor to ensure it is not a political act but that the universities survived for the development of Delta and Nigeria at large.
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