The Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) has disclosed that no fewer than 150 new private universities by 2019.
Speaking at University of Medical Science in Akure, Ondo State at the weekend, the NUC executive secretary, Abubakar Rasheed, said 150 new private universities would be established in the next three years.
The Cable quoted Rasheed, saying, “Presently, 243 applications are being processed for private universities, so in the next two to three years, we will have about 150 private universities.”
He said anyone calling for the stoppage of issuance of license to more universities was ignorant.
According to Rasheed, Nigerian universities cannot isolate themselves from the rest of the world, adding that Argentina has 1705 universities despite its population of about 44 million.
He noted that several other developing countries with lesser population than Nigeria had over 300 universities.
