Jonathan laments Nigerian universities ranking

Posted by admin Education, Headlines Friday, November 25th, 2011

Zaria (Kaduna) – President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday in Zaria, Kaduna State, lamented the inability of any Nigerian university to feature among the top 300 top class universities in the world.

Jonathan said in a message to the 35th convocation of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) that the situation was unacceptable.

Represented by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, the President said, “the situation is unacceptable to the present administration. We are determined to work with the management of our universities to turn this situation around.

“The goal of this administration is not only to improve access to education but to ensure the provision of quality education.”

He said as a priority item on the administration’s agenda, education would continue to receive the desired attention and charged the universities to introduce entrepreneurial education, to enable the graduates to learn appropriate skills to live on their own.

“As we seek to turn out graduates from job seekers to creators of jobs, my administration is putting in place structures to assist budding entrepreneurs to realise this ambition.

“The recently launched ‘youWIN’ programme which will provide funding support for such young business leaders, is one such efforts. There are several others.”

Jonathan commended the university for its contribution to national growth and charged the graduates to be good ambassadors of the institution and the country.

The ABU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, said efforts were being made by its management to reposition it, to compete favourably with leading universities in Africa.

“Our objective is to become a world-class centre of learning and research and to respond to the needs of our immediate community as inherently structured in our academic programmes.

“Accordingly, the management is putting in place state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, thereby creating conducive teaching and research environment.” (NAN)

-Vanguardwp_posts