The Founder of Elizade University, Ilara-mokin in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo state, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, has identified inadequate funding as a major challenge facing the administration of universities in Nigeria.
Ade-Ojo who disclosed this during the convocation ceremony of the institution said the university system requires a lot of funds for effective administration to be realized.
He said that funding has always been the clog in the wheel of development of private universities, noting that the founders of the universities solely bear the responsibility of financing them.
He, however, appealed to the Federal Government to render support to private universities through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and other agencies of government.
He urged the federal government to devise means of assisting private universities since the graduates produced by these institutions contribute immensely to national development.
Ade-Ojo said, “The establishment of this University was borne out of my determination to provide quality education comparable to what Nigerians seek in the developed countries.
“In conceiving this idea, I strongly believe that the craze for foreign education could be minimized by providing viable local alternatives.”
Speaking during the convocation, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Kayode Thadius Ijadunola, disclosed that the institution produced its first set of doctorate of philosophy degrees and first honorary degrees after 13 years of its establishment.
He said the University produced 484 Bachelor’s degrees in various fields of study and said 51 graduands bagged first-class degrees in the eighth and ninth convocation ceremonies of the university.
He said the graduating students include 228 and 256 first degrees for the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic sessions.
According to him, a total of 51 graduates are in the first-class category, 196 are in the second-class upper category, 191 are in the second-class lower category, and the remaining 46 are in the third-class category.
Aside from that, he said the University awarded 16 postgraduate diplomas, 51 master’s degrees, two Master of Philosophy degrees, and five Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
Ijadunola said the convocation ceremony was the first time the University would be graduating students from the recently created Faculty of Allied Health Sciences.
He said the overall best-graduating student and recipient of both the Chancellor’s and the Vice-Chancellor’s prizes for the 2023/2024 session is Imogu Emmanuella Ifunanya of the Department of Civil Engineering, with a CGPA of 4.95.
Also speaking on the challenges facing private universities in the country, Ijadunola called for the inclusion of private universities in the TETfund interventions and the newly introduced Federal education loans scheme (NELFUND) should be reviewed in the interest of both the students and the institutions.
He said “We cannot overemphasize the appeal to all the concerned agencies of government to accommodate private universities, that are not only development partners with the government in the educational transformation of the country but are also contributing their fair share of taxes, in the TETFUND and NELFUND schemes without delay.
“Doing so is only a matter of fairness and natural justice. Over-regulation through multiple accreditation visits by statutory agencies and professional councils is a challenge for universities today.
“The amount of time and financial resources that go into these schemes are unprecedented.
“It will certainly be a welcome development if the Professional Councils will harmonize their oversight functions with those of other statutory organs of government as the NUC for efficiency and effectiveness on the part of all stakeholders in the University system and response to the realities of the 21st-century educational ecosystem.”
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