The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Government-owned universities on Wednesday hailed the President, Bola Tinubu, over the student loan act which he assented to on June 12, 2023.
The committee, during its 99th regular meeting at its secretariat also constituted a committee to look into the thematic area of university autonomy.
The PUNCH reports that the meeting brought together Pro-Chancellors from 50 federal universities.
According to a statement issued by the Committee on Wednesday night, some of the issues discussed pertained to the; “state of affairs and wellbeing of the Nigerian university system, strategies for sustaining the proper conduct of academic activities in Nigerian universities.”
The statement partly read, “The Pro-Chancellors salute the affirmation of Mr President to uphold the sanctity of university autonomy and create the right and enabling environment for teaching, learning and research. CPC looks forward to working closely with the government to sustain this vision and ensure that the existing laws in this direction are firmly upheld.
“The CPC commends Mr President for agreeing to increase funding to education. The new Students Loan Act, which was signed into Law on June 11, 2023, to create broad access for more qualified Nigerians to benefit from tertiary education is a clear testimony of this. CPC looks forward to further discussions with the Federal government to fine-tune this novel initiative.
“The Pro Chancellors enjoin Mr President, in his position as Visitor to all the Federal Universities, to work out an early administrative solution to the pending question of the outstanding obligations to university staff from 2022. CPC calls on Mr President to revisit the pending report of the Federal Government Negotiation Committee, which the previous administration set up to address various issues raised by University unions.”
In conclusion, the Committee noted that it, “constituted two Ad-hoc Committees to deal with some thematic issues.”