The Federal Government has hiked the processing fees for new private universities to N25m, a memo issued by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu said on Monday.
The previous processing fee was N5m.
The Commission said the move was part of its efforts at repositioning private universities in Nigeria to better meet the needs of the citizenry and for better coordination of the development of the Private University Education sub-sector of the Nigerian University System.
It also said it has identified the need to review the guidelines for the establishment of private universities.
The memo read, “This is to ensure that newly established private universities are positioned to meet the challenges of the 21 Century. Pursuant to the above and in line with the directive of the Honourable Minister of Education, the National Universities Commission hereby informs Promoters of proposed Private Universities in particular and the general public as follows:
“The Commission hereby suspends further processing of; All inactive applications including those of private open universities (i.e. those that have not made progress on their applications or made submissions to the Commission for upwards of two years), and applications at the stage of submission of Letters of Intent only.
“The Fee for purchase of Application Forms for the Establishment of a Private University is hereby reviewed from One Million (N1,000,000.00) Naira to (Five Million (N5,000,000.00) Naira; the Processing Fee for Application for the Establishment of a Private University is hereby reviewed from Five Million (N5,000,000.00) Naira to Twenty-Five Million (N25,000,000.00) Naira.
“The NUC will convey the reviewed Processing Fee of Twenty-Five Million (¥25,000,000.00) Naira to applicants that have purchased Application Forms only. They are also expected to effect payments within a period of thirty (30) working days or risk forfeiture of their pending applications.”(Punch)
