Former chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, at the University of Port Harcourt, Dr Austen Sado, says opening new universities will not solve but “compound the problems” of tertiary education in Nigeria.
He stated this on Nigeria Info’s Hard Facts, as the bill to establish 47 new varsities scaled second reading at the House of Representatives.
Dr Sado explained that the solution to the problem of student intake does not lie in creating new universities in the country. He also noted that the funds required to set up one new university will be equivalent to funding four existing ones and improving their capacity to take in more students.
“The amount of money that is needed to put infrastructure in place is humongous,” he said.
He added that there is a manpower problem, especially a “massive shortage of academics” who have jumped on the ‘japa’ train in search of greener pastures because of the government’s education policies.
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