Why Nigerian varsities are not among world best — NUC – Newstrends
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Why Nigerian varsities are not among world best — NUC

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Poor funding is the main reason Nigerian universities are not ranked among the best in the world, Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, has said.

He however said the commission was planning to put in place stringent measures to curtail the proliferation of universities, especially by state governors and ensure adequate funding for universities.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities has also lamented that teaching staff are taking over their jobs through the composition of committees by the university management where the teaching staff are made to head such committees.

The NUC executive secretary spoke in Abuja when the leadership of SSANU paid him a visit in his office, in Abuja, the NUC Executive Secretary advised the association to ensure that any time it was entering into any agreement with the Federal Government, such an agreement should be one that will be implementable.

Explaining why Nigerian universities were not among the highly ranked universities in the world, Prof Rasheed said funding had become a key challenge.

He said, “Once a university loses reputation, it has lost everything.  The NUC may come up with stringent measures on establishing state universities because some of the state-owned universities are not well funded.”

He noted with regret that in a particular university in the South-South, the state government released to the management about N452 million to run the institution in the previous year, and later slashed the money the next year to N91 million, with a further slash to N40 million.

“I am not sure they are paying salary to staff regularly.  Some private universities are sick already,” he said,  pointing out that a particular private university had not paid salary to staff for one and half years.

On the concern raised by SSANU President, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, who led the delegation that state governors were proliferating universities as if it had become a constituency project, the NUC boss said the governors were interested in leaving a legacy but not investing in the established universities.

He, however, expressed optimism that the new NUC Act would give the commission more powers, unlike the existing one, adding that there should be a master plan to be submitted and approved by the commission before any new university was established.

He debunked the claim that some of the commissions set up by the NUC in the universities were dominated by teaching staff, against non-teaching staff.

Speaking earlier, SSANU President, Comrade Ibrahim, lamented that some of the jobs meant for non-teaching staff were being taken over by teaching staff.

He said the association believed in excellent service and doing things in the right way, adding that the voices of members of SSANU would only be heard when necessary.

He said, “Our members are becoming more and more troubled by the recent developments coming out of the university system. Our members’ jobs are being taken over by so many committees in the universities.

“There is the issue of non-payment of salaries, especially for our members in state universities. Some have not received salaries for up to six months, yet we hear that NUC is giving accreditation to new state universities.

“NUC should ensure that our members are not languishing in their offices. We are also disturbed over the negative development of nonuniformity in the conditions of service in the universities. This is happening to the morale of our members. We call for a uniform standard in the universities.”

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UniAbuja: ASUU declares indefinite strike over disagreement with varsity management

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UniAbuja: ASUU declares indefinite strike over disagreement with varsity management 

University of Abuja’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared an indefinite strike.

The union announced the decision on Thursday during a congress held at the permanent site of the institution.

A communique issued by the varsity’s branch of the union declared the “total and indefinite strike” over a lingering disagreement with the UniAbuja management.

The issues involve ASUU’s interest in a multi-stakeholder microfinance banking venture; promotion procedures in the absence of a governing council, election for faculty deanship, and alleged illegal appointments.

Abubakar Kari, the UniAbuja student affairs dean and ex-convener of ASUU’s national political committee, confirmed the development.

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UTME results not available in paper format – JAMB

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UTME results not available in paper format – JAMB

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has urged Nigerians to be wary of any candidate parading printed result slips as, currently, the results are not in any paper format.

The body also said that, unlike last year, the results cannot be found on the Board’s website at the moment.

JAMB made this known in a statement released by its spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, on Wednesday.

He stated that the information became necessary as some individuals were already circulating printed result slips on social media.

The statement read, “The Board, once again, wishes to state clearly that the only way to check the 2024 UTME result is to send UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019 using the same phone used by the candidate in registering for the UTME exercise. Ensure that the SIM is not on any bundle.

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“This is different from what was obtained last year; hence, the results are not and cannot be found on the Board’s website at the moment.

“Candidates are urged to follow the method specified above to obtain their results. They need not visit any cybercafe or patronise any third-party entity to check their result.

“The public is also advised to be wary of any candidate parading printed result slip as currently; the result is not on any paper format as being circulated on social media by some individuals.

“A reasonable number of candidates have checked their results as seen on our monitoring dashboard but for the few still struggling, please follow the right channel.”

On Monday, the Board announced the release of the 2024 UTME results.

The Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known during a press briefing in Bwari, Abuja.

Oloyede also noted that the results of 64,624 out of the 1,904,189 who sat the examination have been withheld by the Board and will be subject to investigation. The Board Registrar noted that though a total of 1,989,668 registered, a total of 80,810 candidates were absent.

UTME results not available in paper format – JAMB

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78% of 2024 UTME candidates scored below 200 – JAMB

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Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede

78% of 2024 UTME candidates scored below 200 – JAMB

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, on Monday, released the results of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, showing that 1,402,490 candidates out of  1,842,464 failed to score 200 out of 400 marks.

The number of candidates who failed to score half of the possible marks represents 78 per cent of the candidates whose results were released by JAMB.

Giving a breakdown of the results of the 1,842,464 candidates released, the board’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, noted that, “8,401 candidates scored 300 and above; 77,070 scored 250 and above; 439,974 scored 200 and above while 1,402,490 scored below 200.”

On naming the top scorers for the 2024 UTME, Oloyede said, “It is common knowledge that the board has, at various times restated its unwillingness to publish the names of its best-performing candidates, as it considers its UTME as only a ranking examination on account of the other parameters that would constitute what would later be considered the minimum admissible score for candidates seeking admission to tertiary institutions.

“Similarly, because of the different variables adopted by respective institutions, it might be downright impossible to arrive at a single or all-encompassing set of parameters for generating a list of candidates with the highest admissible score as gaining admission remains the ultimate goal. Hence, it might be unrealistic or presumptive to say a particular candidate is the highest scorer given the fact that such a candidate may, in the final analysis, not even be admitted.

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“However, owing to public demand and to avoid a repeat of the Mmesoma saga as well as provide a guide for those, who may want to award prizes to this set of high-performing candidates, the Board appeals to all concerned to always verify claims by candidates before offering such awards.”

Oloyede also noted that the results of 64,624 out of the 1,904,189, who sat the examination, were withheld by the board and would be subject to investigation.

He noted that though a total of 1,989,668 registered, a total of 80,810 candidates were absent.

“For the 2024 UTME, 1,989,668 candidates registered including those who registered at foreign centres. The Direct Entry registration is still ongoing.

“Out of a total of 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80,810 were absent. A total of 1,904,189 sat the UTME within the six days of the examination.

“The Board is today releasing the results of 1,842,464 candidates. 64,624 results are under investigation for verification, procedural investigation of candidates, Centre-based investigation and alleged examination misconduct.”

Oloyede also said the board, at the moment, conducts examination in nine foreign centres namely: Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Buea, Cameroon; Cotonou, Republic of Benin; London, United Kingdom; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

“The essence of this foreign component of the examination is to market our institutions to the outside world as well as ensuring that our universities reflect the universality of academic traditions, among others. The Board is, currently, fine-tuning arrangements for the conduct of the 2024 UTME in these foreign centres,” he said.

78% of 2024 UTME candidates scored below 200 – JAMB

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