The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, says the autonomy of public universities can be better achieved if the National Universities Commission (NUC) was left to manage the budgets of tertiary institutions in addition to its role as the regulator
Professor Oloyede, who is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, said university education was so sensitive that it would be best for government to allow experts to administer tertiary institutions.
He faulted a situation where public universities now approach the National Assembly to defend their budget and get whatever they want based on the people they know and the influence they wield.
He said when the NUC managed the budget of universities, there was the Universities Annual Review System which looked at how many candidates’ universities have across disciplines and used that to determine their subsequent budget.
He envisaged a situation where public universities would get funds based on the number of students they admit.
The former vice chancellor also said Nigeria does not need more universities, stressing that the current ones should be expanded and equipped for better performance.