These new varsities

LAST year, an announcement by the Federal Government  that it was imposing a seven-year moratorium on the establishment of federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education was greeted with approval by stakeholders and sundry watchers of the country’s education sector. In that announcement, the government also placed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, with the exception of those that met the new operational standards. At the time, the Federal Government had predicated its decision on the tripod of “the proliferation of underutilised institutions, overstretched resources, and a drop in academic quality.” Echoing the relief of stakeholders that something was being finally done to impose some measure of order on a sector that was growing exponentially without a corresponding rise in quality, this newspaper published an editorial in August 2025 in which we applauded and endorsed the Federal Government’s move.

Recently, though, the government sanctioned the establishment of new private universities across the country. The most recent universities indicated on the website of the National Universities Commission (NUC) are Abdulfatai Durojaiye University, Abeokuta; Jigawa State University of Medical and Allied Health Sciences, Majia; Sani Bello University, Kontagora; and Omega University, Kaduna. The universities were given provisional licences following approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

It is possible that these universities are among those that “met the new operational standards,” as the NUC stated in its August 2025 announcement. That would mean that, technically, the NUC has not violated its moratorium, but there is something unsettling in this episode of endless approvals of new institutions when many of the existing ones are barely surviving. It is extremely difficult to come up with any sound reasons for this other than the fact that the government most probably acted under pressure from influential individuals who care the least about quality public education. Back in February, it was reported that Nigeria’s higher education sector had expanded significantly following the approval of 33 new universities by the National Universities Commission (NUC), bringing the total number of licensed universities in the country to 309 and making the country one of Africa’s largest higher education systems. The newly approved institutions comprised seven federal universities, six state-owned universities, and 20 private universities. The expansion was reportedly aimed at “increasing access to tertiary education, addressing admission shortages, and promoting specialized learning across the country’s geopolitical zones,” seemingly contradicting the same NUC’s earlier directive in which it decided that the country had had enough for now.

We concede that there is a growing demand for university education in Nigeria, and that hundreds of thousands of qualified candidates fail to secure admission each year due to limited spaces in existing institutions. That said, we see little upside and plenty of downside in establishing more institutions without the requisite investment in infrastructure, funding, research, academic staffing, and quality assurance. If the aim of tertiary education is to produce graduates equipped with the knowledge, practical skills, and innovative capacity needed to support national development and economic growth, the kind of radical expansion  the country is witnessing is hardly the way to go about it.

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As it is, the country is back to where it was this time last year when many public universities were inadequately funded and private universities did not have students, even though a good number of them typically  lower the bar so that students can gain admission. As for the quality of instruction in those universities, public or private, the less that is said, the better.

Both the Federal Government and the NUC deserve a large portion of blame for the depressing situation they have created in the country’s tertiary education. They have sent conflicting signals at the precise moment when the country needs clarity and resolve.