NUC has no data on university students size – Secretary

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed, has said that most universities have no accurate and reliable data. Prof. Rasheed, who stated this at a meeting with directors of academic planning of universities in Abuja, said Nigeria was losing a lot because of lack of data. He said, “I came […]

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed, has said that most universities have no accurate and reliable data.

Prof. Rasheed, who stated this at a meeting with directors of academic planning of universities in Abuja, said Nigeria was losing a lot because of lack of data.

He said, “I came back from China two days ago, where it was very embarrassing as I, the Executive Secretary of NUC, could not tell them exactly how many students there are in Nigerian universities.”

He said a number of organisations would support efforts to reform university education in the country but couldn’t do so due to non-availability of data. 

He said, “Many organisations want to come and intervene in our education system but due to lack of data, they moved to other countries like Ghana where they have information.

 “We need to know how many students there are, how many graduated, how many are first year students, how many are male and female, how many students come from public and private universities and how many in different disciplines,” Prof. Rasheed stated.

He said others included how many students were foreigners; how many in post graduates programmes and the distribution according to different states and local governments.

He said directors of academic planning should obtain relevant data in their respective universities and make them available whenever necessary.

He urged the directors to list the most important data, work on them and send same to the commission, noting that should they fail to have all the necessary data, they would lose their power base in their universities. 

 He said the NUC has resolved to start an annual data digest publication on universities.