Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rebuffed plan by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to include private universities as beneficiaries of its initiatives.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU, announced this during a two-day interactive meeting between the TETFund and all recipient universities’ unions in Abuja.
He claimed that including private institutions in the fund’s project would result in the growth of low-quality private universities.
Osodeke called for the elimination of what he called the “stakeholders fund”, adding that there should be sanctions against underperforming institutions.
He urged the fund to improve its project monitoring process, claiming that when some recipient institutions get the same amount of funding, their performance levels are not consistent.
The interactive session was planned as a proactive engagement against the backdrop of the ongoing issues in the subsector, according to TETFund Executive Secretary Sonny Echono.
He emphasised the necessity for ongoing discussions to find the best solutions.
Echono added that the potential to create and strengthen collaboration among the fund, its beneficiary institutions, and the unions on issues affecting the expansion and development of tertiary education will result from the interactive session.
This comes as discussions concerning finance and quality assurance in Nigeria’s higher education sector are still underway.