The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has called on the federal government to give the National Universities Commission (NUC) full control over the budgets of public universities to ensure better governance and accountability in the education sector.
Oloyede, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, expressed his views during an appearance on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.
The JAMB registrar argued that university education in Nigeria is highly sensitive and requires expert management, which he believes the NUC, as the regulator responsible for accrediting courses, is best suited to oversee.
He criticized the current system in which each public university individually approaches the National Assembly to defend its budget.
According to Oloyede, this process has led to an unhealthy reliance on political influence, with universities securing funding based on personal connections rather than the merits of their educational needs.
“We can still re-engineer the situation to have the things we need. We need to look at the funding mechanism.
The National Universities Commission, for example, should be left alone to run the universities. Hold the NUC responsible for the management of the universities,” Oloyede said.
The JAMB registrar highlighted the efficacy of the system when the NUC had full control over university budgets in the past.
He recalled that during his tenure as Chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, the Universities Annual Review System was in place.
This system used student enrollment numbers across disciplines to determine funding, ensuring that universities received fair financial support based on actual needs, not personal influence.
Oloyede emphasized that under the NUC-led system, universities were not only adequately funded but also enjoyed better capital development.
He lamented that under the current system, funding for capital projects has dwindled, partly due to the bloated administrative structures at universities.
The former Vice Chancellor also proposed a shift toward funding public universities based on student output rather than arbitrary budget allocations.
He suggested that universities like the University of Abuja, for example, could receive funds according to the number of medical doctors they train, with calculations based on the cost of producing one medical doctor.
“The way we are running things now could evolve into a situation where we say: ‘University of Abuja, you are producing XY medical doctors; what does it take to train one?
“This is the quota we have given you,’ and then we calculate the amount. Your capital and recurrent expenditure won’t be our business,” he said.
Oloyede further argued that Nigeria does not need to establish more universities but should instead focus on expanding and properly equipping the existing ones to improve their performance.
He criticized the political practice of creating new universities as a way to compensate marginalized communities, instead of focusing on creating industries and factories that could provide sustainable jobs and growth.
Oloyede urged the federal government to rethink its approach to university funding and governance, advocating for a more professional and systematic management structure that places the NUC at the helm of decision-making for public universities in Nigeria.
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