‘Suspension to affect prospective students’

Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. 

Candidates that chose  universities whose  operational licences were either  suspended  by the National Universities Commission  may  have to make other plans if they must secure admission to a university this year as none of the  suspended  universities  would be allowed to admit fresh students for the 2012/2013 academic session.

The Director of Press and Public Relations of the NUC, Mallam Ibrahim Yakassai, told one of our correspondents on the telephone on Thursday that  while the universities would be allowed to graduate their old students, they would not be allowed to admit new students until they clear the issues in contention with the NUC.                                                                         

Yakassai said as a regulatory agency, it was appropriate for the NUC  to take steps that would ensure practical development and high standards in Nigerian universities.

He said, “The affected universities can’t take fresh students. We have communicated their failures to them; we have our guidelines and before  we can go ahead to  suspend  their licences, something must be wrong. They have flouted our guidelines .

“This is just the beginning;  from now on, we will deal with any university that flouts our guidelines. We must maintain standard in our universities.

“For candidates who applied to any of these universities for the 2012/2013 academic year, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board  has been requested to assist in distributing qualified candidates to other universities of their choice.’’

Also, the commission’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie,  on Thursday debunked insinuations that the commission acted out of malice in the case of Leads University which instituted a court case against the NUC.

Okojie said, “We are only performing our regulatory functions. We withdrew the licence of Obong University (others were suspended). Are we in court with them?

“Who took us to court before we suspended part-time programmes in all Nigerian universities?  We are still taking in reactions from all stakeholders. At the appropriate time after we have all of them, we will respond accordingly.”