Vice Chancellor, Ajayi Crowther University (ACU), Oyo State, Prof. Timothy Adebayo, has called for amendment of the law establishing Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to accommodate private universities in the country, Daily Trust reports.
He made the appeal at a news conference held on Monday in Oyo, ahead of the convocation ceremony of the institution.
Adebayo called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to amend the law to allow private universities benefit from the Fund.
While identifying funding as a major challenge facing private universities in Nigeria, he said that the staffers and students of private universities should not be deprived the right to benefit from public funds.
He said private universities also needed subvention to help them alleviate the pressure on public universities in terms of admission.
Adebayo said that private universities had been helping to mitigate the pressure on public universities but were, however, hampered by funding.
He said that most of them were not receiving subvention from any other source outside the tuition fee being paid by the students and donations from philanthropists.
“As at last count, Nigeria has 99 private universities. Giving them subvention will alleviate the funding problem and mitigate the fee being charged.” (NAN)
