Varsities Panel report: It’s not true we prioritise IGR over quality, says Committee of VCs

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities has said the claim by the Presidential Visitation Panels to universities that the managements of various institutions gave priority to internally generated revenues at the expense of quality of the system is untrue.

The chairman of the committee, who is also the vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN). Prof Sulyman Age Abdulkareem gave the remarks in an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune when asked at the weekend for his reaction on the subject matter based on his capacity as the chairman of the committee.

He said even though he would not completely fault the claim since he didn’t know the exact situation in all the universities, he is particularly confident that the federal universities are really committed and striving to provide quality education to students and also quality research and community service despite the paucity of funds facing them.

According to him, despite we are being underfunded, one thing is certain and that is the fact that lecturers must find a way of getting knowledge across to students and that is what I know the majority of us are doing.

Prof Abdulkareem said he was very sure particularly of UNILORIN as an institution that does not compromise quality for anything including revenue generation.

He, however, pointed out that federal universities even have limited avenues to generate revenues internally.

According to him, many people are still saying federal universities should be charging fees higher like that of private and state universities, but we can’t do that as doing so will be contrary to the position of the federal government on charges.

It will be recalled that the chairmen of various Presidential Visitation Panels to federal universities and other tertiary institutions in the country submitted their reports to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, in Abuja last Tuesday to give to President Muhammadu Buhari who is a visitor to all the institutions.

It will also be recalled that the panels which were set up as one of the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to the federal government observed generally that the institution indeed gave priorities to IGR and that consequently affecting the quality of their services.

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