Vice-Chancellor, Ajayi Crowther University (ACU), Oyo, Prof. Timothy Adebayo, has called for amendment of the law establishing Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to accommodate private universities in the country.

He made the appeal at a news conference held on Monday in Oyo, ahead of the convocation ceremony of the institution.

Ajayi Crowther University ACU, a faith-based institution, was established by the Supra Diocesan Board (West) of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) with a total of 990 students graduated in 2019/2020, out of whom 51 made first class, while 1,165 graduated in the 2020/2021 session, with 34 making first class.

Adebayo called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly (NASS) to amend the law to allow private universities benefit from the fund.

While identifying funding as a major challenge facing private universities in Nigeria, he said that the staffers and students of private universities should not be deprived the right to benefit from public funds.

The vice-chancellor noted that private universities also needed subvention to help them alleviate the pressure on public universities in terms of admission.

Adebayo said that private universities had been helping to mitigate the pressure on public universities but were, however, hampered by funding.

He said that most of them were not receiving subvention from any other source outside the tuition fee being paid by the students and donations from philanthropists.

“As at last count, Nigeria has 99 private universities. Giving them subvention will alleviate the funding problem and mitigate the fee being charged.

“Education is one of the vital tools that cannot be totally privatised,” he explained.

Earlier, the vice-chancellor said that the special and combined convocation ceremony would feature inauguration of completed projects at the institution.

Adebayo said that the combined 12th and 13th convocation ceremony, which commenced on Nov. 27, would end on Dec. 4.

According to him, the award of diploma and first degree will hold on Dec. 3, while that of postgraduate and honorary degrees hold on Dec. 4

The National Youth Service Corps in Gombe State has warned corps members against the illegal connection of electricity and electrical appliances in camp.

The Camp Director, Mohammed Yakubu, made this call on Tuesday as the 2021 Batch ‘C’ Stream II Corps members took the oath of allegiance during the swearing-in ceremony.

This was contained in a statement by the NYSC Gombe State, adding that the corps members were advised on how to make judicious use of camp facilities.

According to the statement, Yakubu commended the corps members for “exhibiting a high level of discipline thus far.”

The statement partly read, “He advised them to sustain the tempo as they take the oath of allegiance this morning during their swearing-in ceremony.

“Speaking on cleanliness, Yakubu said hostels and environs must be kept clean at all times. He called on hostel Governors to be alive to their responsibility.”

According to the Gombe NYSC coordinator, Ada Imoni, 1566 Corps members, made up of 618 males and 948 females were sworn in during the ceremony on Tuesday.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it will adopt the cashless policy in the registration process for 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The Board said with the adoption of the new system, it would be collecting the approved N700 registration fee on behalf of the various Computer-Based Test (CBT) centers along with its UTME registration fees.

It said the money due to each registration centre would be remitted to relevant bank accounts on a weekly basis or any timeframe acceptable to the centre owners.

JAMB made this known via its weekly bulletin obtained by local news media.

The Board said its decision to go cashless in the UTME registration exercise would put an end to some of the fraudulent activities of some CBT centres, who charge candidates above stipulated fee.

In the previous years, candidates pay the sum of N700 at the centres. However, with the new policy, candidates simply walk into any registration centre and register without paying any amount as the fee hitherto payable to the centre had been paid along with the cost of obtaining the e-PINS.

Meanwhile, the examination body said it generated N141.2 million between 20 November and 26 November 2021.