From LAYI OLANREWAJU, Ilorin
The Vice-Chancellor, of the newly approved university, Summit University, Offa (SUNO), Prof. Hussein Oloyede, has joined his voice in calling on the Federal Government to make private universities beneficiaries of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Prof. Oloyede who was speaking in an interaction with newsmen recently argued that like their public counterparts, private universities also contribute to the intellectual, moral and economic development of the nation through their impartation of knowledge to the young and upcoming segments of our society.
He cited example with SUNO, the university owned by the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, which he said would begin academic activities in December with 500 students in the colleges of Natural and Applied Sciences, Humanities and Management, and Social Science.
He explained that the university which would offer courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Arabic Language, Islamic Studies, English and Literary Studies, Economics, Business Administration, Political Science and Accounting ought to benefit from the fund like the public universities are benefiting as these could help to ease off the financial burdens as well as further lower the fees the students may be asked to pay. But he assured parents and students that tuition fees of the institution would be the least among the private universities in the country. He said that the university would be unique in the discharge of its mandate in teaching and research.
“Ours at Summit University shall be collaborative research involving other universities, local, international research institutes and industries to solve human problems,” he said. “As a foremost faith-based institution, this university is set out to inculcate moral values into all spheres of our lives, including the discharge of our mandates in teaching, research and service to the community.
“We shall engage first class teaching and non-teaching staff and make the university fully IT compliant, while making our environment fully e-equipped in respect of lecture rooms, auditorium, teaching, communication and library”.
Oloyede promised that the university would promote sporting activities to produce graduates, who are not only intellectually sound, but also healthy.