FG Set To Dispatch Visitation Panels To Varsities
The Federal Government has concluded arrangements to dispatch visitation panels to 38 federal universities and four intercom university centres recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The move was announced by the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, who also disclosed that government was in the process of gazetting the exercise to enable them carry it out.
He made the disclosure while briefing the Quality Assurance Committee of the NUC Board during their meeting in Abuja,on Tuesday.
Giving further details, Rasheed said that the federal ministry of education was working with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the gazetting was done expeditiously.
He said that as soon as the gazetting was done, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu would inaugurate the panels after which they would proceed to their respective universities for the assignment.
A statement by Ibrahim Yankansai, Director Media of the NUC also explained that all federal universities and inter-university centres would receive a visitation team each except those universities created less than five years ago: the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, the Army University, Biu and the Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo as they were not due for such visitation, adding that the other universities: the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, Airforce Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna and the Police Academy, Wudil would also not be visited.
According to the NUC Boss, the audit would cover a period of ten years for all the universities to be visited except for the federal universities in Birnin Kebbi, Gashua and Gusau whose audit would cover only five years as they were created less than ten years ego.
He explained that their report would cover the period 2013 to 2017. “For the ten year period each visitation panel is to produce two separate reports of five years each covering January 2011 to December 2015 and January 2016 to December 2020”.
According to Prof. Rasheed, the Chairmen of the Panels were drawn from some of the best retired Public servants including a former Chief of Army Staff, six former Heads of Service of the Federation; former federal permanent secretaries; former vice chancellors; and Professors Emeriti, amongst several others.
