The Vice-Chancellor, Crawford University, Prof
Olurotimi Ajayi, says that most of the private
universities in the country are not profit driven,
hence they are established to complement the
existing ones.
Ajayi stated this after a news conference,
heralding the activities to mark the 9th
convocation of the university that private
universities only charged maintenance fees not
commercial fees.
The faith-based Crawford University, Igbesa,
Ogun was established in 2015 by the Apostolic
Faith Church Mission.
“There has been the debate over the
establishment of private universities as regards
the profiteering motive which has been on the
contrary.
“Universities are very expensive, anybody can
ask even the Federal Government how much it
spends on maintenance of the existing public
institutions.
“Even some states cannot afford more than one
because it is capital intensive and even ask
them how much they are generating from those
universities.
“Private universities are not established to look
after profit, that is not the vision of those who
started them, they are established as an
intervention to the declining standard of tertiary
education,’’ he said.
Ajayi said that the cost of maintaining
universities were enormous hence, the
missionary schools saw them more of a social
provision toward the development of education.
“If we can go back to the history of setting up of
universities, they started as faith-based, we will
see clearly that the vision is to provide an
intervention which can stimulate academic
excellence.
“The cost of running universities is very
enormous, considering the wages of the
academic and non-academic staff. We also have
other running costs which are also back-
breaking.
“It is a disservice to say that we are making
profits; where is that coming from? We are just
managing to put our heads up for survival.
“The students fees cannot even pay for some of
the expenses that is the reason the owners of
the universities do supply intervention funds
almost every time,’’ he said.
Ajayi said that government could help to
ameliorate the high expenses from these private
universities through intervention funds from its
agencies such as TETFund.
“We can say that we need the government’s
help because provision of education is within
the list of government function. They can
support through TETFund.
“We are complementing government’s efforts in
a great way through our contributions to
manpower development in terms of personnel,
so, I see no reason why it cannot help.
“Government can come in through its own way
to appreciate the wonderful things we have
brought to the education system in Nigeria and
that is the way to go.
“Private universities have produced students of
higher ranks more than the public universities
and we have also broke into the Webometrics
ranking, which is commendable,’’ he said.
The 9th convocation Crawford University, a total
of 230 graduands will be awarded First Degrees,
while 40 are to be awarded Postgraduate
Diplomas.
A further breakdown of the graduates, shows
that 78 are from the College of Natural and
Applied Science, while 152 will be from the
College of Business and Social Sciences.
Twenty-two students got First Class, while 88
graduates passed out with Second Class Upper
Division, 83 had Second Class Lower Division,
while 37 had Third Class.
The convocation ceremony comes up on Dec.
13, at the University’s Hall, Igbesa, Ogun.
NANThe cost of running universities is very
enormous, considering the wages of the
academic and non-academic staff. We also have
other running costs which are also back-
breaking.