The National Universities Commission (NUC) has issued letters of recognition to the Lagos State government for the establishment of two new specialised universities as approved by the Lagos State Assembly.
Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed presented the approval letters to the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Abuja on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
TheFact Nigeria gathered that the 2 new specialised universities were established to address the problem of unemployable graduates experienced in the country.
The newly established universities are Lagos State University of Science and Technology and the University of Education, Lagos. They were established through the upgrade of two existing institutions, Lagos State Polytechnic and Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Lagos respectively.
In his remarks, Rasheed dismissed claims about the proliferation of universities in Nigeria, insisting that Nigeria with over 200 million population required more universities to cater for the tertiary education needs of the citizens.
He noted that Nigeria currently has an enrolment of 2 million students in the existing 200 universities, saying this was quite low when compared to the number of candidates who seek admissions into universities annually.
The NUC boss noted that the Commission did not hesitate to approve the request of Governor Sanwo-Olu, for the establishment of the two universities, because of his demonstrable commitment to the funding of the existing Lagos State University, which was established about 39 years ago.
“Sanwo-Olu has been a reference point for support to State Universities in Nigeria. We have visited LASU several times, and we saw that the Governor has ensured that LASU takes its proper position in the university system in Nigeria,” he said.
He, however, advised the Governor and indeed other proprietors of universities in Nigeria to look at new courses, which were relevant to the needs of the various states and the nation at large.
Earlier, Sanwo-Olu said the upgrade of the State Polytechnic and College of Education to Universities was borne out of the desire to address the yawning gap in providing proper university education to people of Lagos State and Nigeria in general.
He said: “Lagos has the largest economy in the whole of Africa. But unfortunately Lagos today has only one state university that was given to us about 39 years ago. So, we are happy to come to NUC today to pick two brand new universities approvals for the people of Lagos state”.
