NUC mulls integrating students into universities’ Senate

STUDENTS may soon be allowed to form part of their respective university’s Senate going by a hint given by the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed.

He told an online education website, educeleb.com, on Monday that the commission is currently working on plans to make students form an integral part of their university’s Senate soon, since universities would not exist if they had no students.

Professor Rasheed said the move is in line with global best practices, and that it is important to give students opportunity to be part of issues that affect them across the faculty and departmental levels.

“Universities are about students. If there was no student, there would be no university. If there was no university, there would be no NUC. We are trying to see how we can empower students to participate in decision making in the university.

“If you go abroad, there are students in the Senate. It is important so that when the Senate is discussing issues pertaining to students, they (students) will be there so that they will be heard.”

He also spoke of plans by the commission to foster further make universities foster national unity through their composition of staff and students.

“Nigerian universities are always compared with universities outside the country. We are reminded that no Nigerian university is in the top 500. But if you look at the criteria for ranking universities in the world, one criterion is in the percentage of foreign students and lecturers in your institutions.

“But here in Nigeria, our first problem is not the talk of foreign students but how do we become national universities. How can all Nigerians be congregating in all campuses? Everybody, every religion and people who have no religion should be able to move freely to study, learn, interact, and interrelate,” he added.