The National Universities Commission (NUC) has issued letters of recognition to the Lagos State Government for the establishment of two new specialised universities as approved by the Lagos State Assembly.
The universities are Lagos State University of Science and Technology and the University of Education, Lagos. They were established through the upgrade of two existing institutions, Lagos State Polytechnic and Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Lagos respectively.
Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed presented the approval letters to the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu who was accompanied by some top functionaries in the State to the Commission on Tuesday in Abuja.
Rasheed in his remarks at the event dismissed claims about the proliferation of universities in Nigeria, insisting that Nigeria with over 200 million population require more universities to cater for the tertiary education needs of the citizens.
He noted that Nigeria currently has an enrolment of 2 million students in the existing 200 universities, saying this was quite low when compared to the number of candidates who seek admissions into universities annually.
The NUC boss noted that the Commission did not hesitate to approve the request of Governor Sanwo-Olu, for the establishment of the two universities, because of his demonstrable commitment to the funding of the existing Lagos State University, which was established about 39 years ago.
“Sanwo-Olu has been a reference point for support to State University in Nigeria. we have visited LASU several times, and we saw that the Governor has ensured that LASU takes its proper position in the university system in Nigeria,” he said.
He, however, advised the Governor and indeed other proprietors of universities in Nigeria to look at new courses, which are relevant to the needs of the various states and the nation at large.
Earlier, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the upgrade of the State Polytechnic and College of Education to Universities was borne out of the desire to address the yawning gap in providing proper university education to people of Lagos State and Nigeria in general.
He said: “Lagos has the largest economy in the whole of Africa. But unfortunately Lagos today has only one state university that was given to us about 39 years ago. So, we are happy to come to NUC today to pick two brand new universities approvals for the people of Lagos state”.
He noted that his administration had invested extensively in the existing institutions that have been upgraded with one of them having over 60 PhD lecturers while their infrastructures are being developed aggressively.
“We believe that the approval to have Lagos State Polytechnic turned to University of Science and Technology, will bring about innovations in engineering, science, inventions and things that would bring development to our country and state,” he said.
