Stick to your core mandates! FG issues FINAL warning to specialised universities

- The federal government has directed that all specialised universities are to stick to their core mandates

- The universities have been running programmes which have no bearing to their foundation

- The government says it is an aberration and should be stopped with immediate effect

The federal government has warned all specialised universities to stick to their original mandates and desist from running programmes which have no bearing to their foundation.

This was made known on Sunday, January 8 in a statement by the spokesman of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Dr. Fabian Benjamin.

The statement noted that specialised universities are set up to pursue specific courses or programmes to steer the need of manpower in a particular sector of the economy.

The universities in this category are universities of agriculture, universities of technologies, and universities of medicine, among others.

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The statement said the federal government had observed that these institutions have derailed from their statutory responsibilities thereby running programmes that are are not in tune with their mandates

Part of the statement read: “Government notes the unfortunate situation were universities of agriculture offer programmes in law, management courses such as accounting, banking and finance, business administration among others and.

“As if that was not enough some institutions changes the nomenclature of some of the course to read for instance banking engineering, accounting technology, among other names.

“This is an aberration and should be stopped with immediate effect.”

The statement however stated that the minister of education has since directed JAMB to delete all such courses on its portal, adding that all candidates desirous of sitting for the 2017 UTME are advised not to be hoodwinked into such programmes as they are illegal.

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Meanwhile, the registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede has denied the bribery allegations leveled against him by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Oloyede said he has never collected bribe from anyone adding that he only collects greeting cards and not bribes or kickbacks from contarctors as alleged.