Nigeria Has Only 100,000 Lecturers For Over 2.1 Million University Students – NUC

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has stated that universities should be separated from the Federal Government’s circular on new employment as a result of the shortage of lecturers.

The commission added that 100,000 academic staff members were attending to over 2.1 million students in Nigerian universities.

The NUC disclosed this in its most recent bulletin.

The Deputy Executive Secretary, Administration, NUC, Mr Chris Maiyaki, who was quoted in the bulletin, said that the commission was supervising over 200 universities which includes 48 Federal Government; 54 states and 99 private institutions.

According to Maiyaki, “The entire system has about 2.1 million students and staff strength of about 170,000 non-teaching and 100,000 academic staff.

“Some of the problems facing the system include increased running cost, meagre budgetary allocations, issue of power shortages and shortages of manpower.

“There is a need for universities to be isolated from the Federal Government’s circular on embargo on new employment because of the peculiarity and distinctive nature of the universities in order for them to keep up the pace in attaining comparable standards with their counterparts globally.

“We also have incessant interference in the NUC’s functions by some professional bodies and associations, which have continued to issue needless instructions to universities.

“Other challenges in the Nigerian university system include the issue of digital response to COVID-19 lockdown.”

Maiyaki further talked about how 2020 was an unusual year for everyone as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged the whole world, noting that Nigerian universities were made to begin embracing the use of technology in knowledge delivery.

He explained that the coronavirus had made Nigerian universities to explore the dual mode of delivering knowledge with a lot of institutions developing and growing their digital hub to begin an extensive use of the online platform.

“Within the period, the NUC had been conducting some activities, which included major curriculum review, assessment of universities on their E-Learning requirements, strengthening of quality assurance mechanism as well as fortifying modern methods of data processing and retrieval,” he added.