The Federal Government says it has no plan to hand over public universities to private investors.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said this at the Second Quarterly Engagement of the Ministry with Heads of Units and Chief Executive Officers of parastatals and agencies under the Ministry.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had accused the federal government of plans to hand over federal universities to investors through public-private partnerships.
”There is no plan to sell off universities to investors,” he said, noting the policy of the government allowed for transnational education.
According to him, transnational education is a policy on what the current administration is doing to open up tertiary education by taking people from the rest of the world to invest in the tertiary system.
“Some people are carrying information that the federal government is selling off to private investors its universities. This is an absolute lie and completely false.
“This government believes in our public institutions. However, as we all know this government has reforms that this country needs.
“The private sector will play a major role in the provision of tertiary education as there are more private universities in Nigeria than public universities combined.
“What this government has done is to open up the tertiary education level in particular the universities for global competitiveness,” he said.
The minister stressed the need to allow those who operate universities at the international level to come into the country and set up institutions either for themselves or in collaboration with the nation’s local universities.