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Prof. Tunji Olaopa, the chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), on Wednesday, described as criminal the National Universities Commission\u2019s conduct of licencing so many institutions when the current ones lack significant financial arrangements.<\/p>\n

Olaopa, who stated this while delivering the 16th Convocation Lecture of Lead City University in Ibadan on Wednesday, also bemoaned the country\u2019s university growth, calling it a troubling tendency.<\/p>\n

While delivering the lecture, entitled \u201cThe Renewed Hope Agenda and the Imperative of Repositioning Nigerian Universities,\u201d Olaopa said the government enters policy-making processes without the solid hand that intellectual and empirical contributions may have provided to consolidate action research and policy intelligence.<\/p>\n

He observed that the research outputs of universities and other tertiary institutions have become increasingly barren, becoming merely cosmetic and ceremonial.<\/p>\n

\u201cGone were the days when government policy decisions were fortified by active town and gown engagements; when the likes of the late Dr Pius Okigbo and Prof. Ojetunji Aboyade would deploy sound econometric analysis that the likes of Chief Simeon Adebo, Allison Ayida, et al., could count upon in formulating Nigeria\u2019s development planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this extent, the Nigerian education landscape is not far from global education development. However, licencing so many universities under the political and politicising imperative when the existing ones do not have any firm regulatory oversight or significant funding arrangements is just criminal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Olaopa also identified some of the issues affecting education and impeding the country\u2019s development. According to him, they include the intractable issue of education financing in Nigeria, the lack of full autonomy for public universities and the upgrade of universities\u2019 governing councils as employers. he also mentioned the adversarial model of industrial action that locks ASUU into a degrading and unproductive conflict with university management and the government.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s criminal to licence new universities while existing ones are underfunded\u2019 \u2013 FCSC chairman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Tunji Olaopa, the chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), on Wednesday, described as criminal the National Universities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6330,15],"tags":[6331,180],"class_list":["post-5767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fcsc","category-news","tag-fcsc","tag-news"],"yoast_head":"\n