Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said it is an act of mental laziness for university operators to rely on subvention from the owners and burden the students with humongous tuition fees.
The governor spoke yesterday in Osogbo, the state capital, while inaugurating the access road to the University of Osun (UNIOSUN).
He urged Nigerian universities to adopt world best practices where schools raise funds through endowments, grants and donations from the society, the primary beneficiary of university education.
UNIOSUN’s Chancellor, Chief Mrs Folorunso Alakija, donated N250 million, said to be the amount needed to complete the road.
Read Also Fashola advises Nigerians to embrace solar energy
Aregbesola said university funding across the world is capital-intensive and requires helps from philanthropists, like Mrs Alakija, to boost the education system.
He hailed Mrs Alakija’s gesture, saying her gesture was a refreshing perspective in education funding, particularly the university, which requires a huge financial outlay.
Aregbesola said: “Universities require a large amount for capital projects and not less sum for recurrent expenditure. In our intellectually lazy (or idea-challenged) environment, the line of least resistance has largely been followed – which is to rely on subvention from the owners and burden the students with humongous tuition fees.
“But the best practices, as we see from other climes, are to raise funds through endowments, grants and donations from the larger society, which is the primary beneficiary of university education anyway.
“Universities also generate revenues through patents, royalties and other intellectual property materials.
“This is why there is a huge gap between per capita spending on students by the Euro-American universities, compared to our own.”
