The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Government-owned universities has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for signing the student loan bill into law on June 12, 2023.
Rising from its 99th regular meeting, the committee, which had in attendance about 50 Pro-Chancellors from federal universities, also constituted a body to look into the thematic area of university autonomy.
The committee, in a statement on Wednesday night, said some of the issues they discussed at the meeting focused more on the; “state of affairs and wellbeing of the Nigerian university system, strategies for sustaining the proper conduct of academic activities in Nigerian universities.”
According to the statement: “The Pro-Chancellors salute the affirmation of Mr President to uphold the sanctity of university autonomy and create the right and enabling environment for teaching, learning and research. CPC looks forward to working closely with the government to sustain this vision and ensure that the existing laws in this direction are firmly upheld.
“The CPC commends Mr. President for agreeing to increase funding to education. The new Students Loan Act, which was signed into Law on June 11, 2023, to create broad access for more qualified Nigerians to benefit from tertiary education is a clear testimony of this. CPC looks forward to further discussions with the Federal government to fine-tune this novel initiative.
“The Pro Chancellors enjoin Mr President, in his position as Visitor to all the Federal Universities, to work out an early administrative solution to the pending question of the outstanding obligations to university staff from 2022. CPC calls on Mr President to revisit the pending report of the Federal Government Negotiation Committee, which the previous administration set up to address various issues raised by University unions.
“In conclusion, the Committee constituted two Ad-hoc Committees to deal with some thematic issues. These are the Committee on Alternative Funding of Universities and Committee on University Autonomy.”
