The National Universities Commission (NUC), has stated that it has no hand in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors for tertiary institutions in the country.
The Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, disclosed this during an interactive session with news men in Abuja.
According to the Professor, the appointment of Vice-Chancellor rest squarely on the board members of the Universities.
He said, “even the Minister of Education or the President of the Federal Republic have no hands in the appointment of Vice-Chancellor of any university.
On the issue of illegal universities, Rasheed said that the commission was in collaboration with ICPC to weed out the system.
“We have set up a committee to look into that and I can tell you that we are doing a lot to end the ugly trend of the illegal mills”, he said.
He urged members of the public to assist in reporting illegal universities as the task of safeguarding the quality of the university system is not only that of the NUC.
According to him, the commission is facing very serious challenges from the universities, even as he called for concerted efforts to ensure that the system continues to thrive.
He described the ASUU strike, as the biggest threat to the nation’s university calendar, stating that there are hardly any two federal universities with the same academic calendar because of the disruptions caused by the unions’ strike.
On the issue of quality in the system, he disclosed that NUC has given Vice Chancellors a directive to ensure that a semester lasts 17 weeks and not to complete semesters in six weeks.
