Rescue Nigerian Universities From Civil Service Bureaucracies, Registrars Urge FG

The Association of Registrars of Nigerian Universities has called on the federal government to rescue the universities from the stranglehold of Civil Service bureaucracies.

This was contained in a communique jointly signed by the Association’s Chairman, Ife Oluwole and Public Relations Officer, Yakubu Ayuba and issued at the end of its 18th Annual Retreat and 74th Business Meeting in Benin City, Edo State.

The Association stated that the University system, given its peculiarities should be formally excised from the Civil Service system and granted full autonomy.

It added that when the universities are at liberty to make decisions for themselves, it would certainly make the them more globally competitive.

“There is an urgent need to rescue Nigerian universities from the stranglehold of Civil Service bureaucracies. Therefore, the University system, given its peculiarities should be formally excised from the Civil Service system and granted full autonomy.

“Government should keep a respectable and watchful distance from the Acts and Statutes which establish the institutions. Such autonomy must come with accountability and top-notch integrity.

“Universities should be free from excessive governmental control and interference. They should be at liberty to determine the contents of their curricula, determine their admission and recruitment policies and processes, as well as be allowed to take full charge of their operations and governance.

“The principles of autonomy, when properly applied, should free the universities from over-dependence on the public treasury, by allocating block grants to universities and realising the same on an annual or bi-annual basis, as well as allowing them to charge reasonable and realistic fees/charges to students. This would certainly make the universities more globally competitive,” the communique reads.

The Registrars also called on proprietors of universities to invest heavily in ICT to conform with the trend of the industrial revolution.

“Proprietors of universities should invest heavily in ICT to conform with the trend of the fourth industrial/technological revolution and new methods of higher education learning and record management,” it said.

The group also proposed that the TETFund intervention in universities should be expanded to all sectors of the university system.