By Felix Khanoba
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has urged heads of tertiary institutions across the country to embrace public-private partnerships (PPP) to address accommodation shortages on campuses, disclosing that less than 50 per cent of students currently live within their institutions.
The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, made the call in Abuja on Wednesday during a strategic engagement with heads of beneficiary institutions, chairmen of governing councils and bursars.
Echono, who expressed concern over the security risks confronting students living off campus, said the Fund was intensifying efforts to support the development of student hostels through direct construction and private-sector partnerships.
He explained that the initiative was aimed at providing safer accommodation for students, particularly those who often travel considerable distances to attend lectures, conduct research or use university facilities late into the night.
“Because we observe that less than 50% of our students currently are living on campus. And they (others ) are exposed to some danger and risk,” he said.
According to him, the PPP arrangement offers institutions an opportunity to address their accommodation challenges without bearing the full financial burden of developing and managing hostel facilities.
Echono explained that under the proposed arrangement, institutions would primarily provide land, while TETFund would take responsibility for the counterpart funding, with private-sector partners expected to provide the developers and facility managers.
“Your requirement is to make the land available on your campus. Full stop,” he said, urging governing councils and heads of institutions to take advantage of the opportunity.
He expressed disappointment over what he described as the slow response of institutions to the hostel development PPP initiative, insisting that the arrangement presented an opportunity that should be aggressively pursued.
The TETFund boss, however, noted that the PPP model was not limited to student accommodation, stressing that institutions could also attract private investment into other commercial and service-oriented facilities within their campuses.
He listed shopping malls, pharmacies, commercial farms and other student-support facilities as areas where institutions could partner with private investors to generate revenue and improve campus services.
Echono explained that such partnerships had become increasingly necessary because of competing demands on government resources and the difficult economic environment, which had affected project costs and implementation.
He said global economic uncertainties, inflation and rising prices of construction materials had continued to undermine project planning, cost estimates and the implementation of TETFund interventions.
The Executive Secretary also urged tertiary institutions to embrace digital learning and make effective use of technology-driven educational resources provided through the Fund.
He expressed concern over the slow adoption of the TETFund-supported digital learning platform, TERAS, saying institutions were yet to maximise the opportunities it offered for teaching, learning and research.
According to him, the platform would enable institutions to adopt hybrid learning models, allowing students to participate in lectures and access educational resources without being physically present in classrooms.
“We should embrace technology and not fear it,” Echono said, urging university administrators and governing councils to ensure that lecturers and students were adequately trained to utilise available digital resources.
He said TETFund expected more than 60 per cent of teaching staff in beneficiary institutions to be competent in digital modes of teaching and learning.
Echono also challenged institutions to adapt their academic and administrative systems to emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, rather than treating them solely as threats to academic integrity.
While acknowledging concerns that students could deploy artificial intelligence tools to engage in academic dishonesty, he said institutions should develop appropriate internal controls to address the risks while taking advantage of the technology’s benefits.
He further disclosed that TETFund was migrating its intervention processes online, noting that institutions had been given sufficient time and support to adapt to the digital requirements.
He said the Fund had organised training programmes to strengthen the capacity of beneficiary institutions, adding that digital resources, including access to more than 400 libraries, were available to support teaching, research and learning.
The TETFund boss urged institutional administrators to ensure that staff and students utilised the resources, noting that public funds were being spent not only to provide the services but also to maintain and sustain them.
“If you don’t use it, it is a waste of our national resource,” he warned.
Echono also explained that the annual strategic engagement provided an opportunity for TETFund and beneficiary institutions to review intervention programmes, assess project performance and determine priorities for the following year.
He said the exercise, usually held between October and November, was designed to obtain feedback from institutions on existing interventions, identify programmes requiring improvement and determine those that should be modified or discontinued.
The Executive Secretary also highlighted the need to improve relationships between governing councils and principal officers of institutions, particularly over procurement and the implementation of TETFund-funded projects.
Meanwhile, the National Universities Commission (NUC) has acknowledged TETFund’s contributions to the development of Nigerian universities, urging institutions to ensure that intervention funds were judiciously utilised.
The NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, represented by the Director of Research and Innovation, Mallam Faruk Mohammed, said TETFund had continued to play important roles in strengthening university education.
He stressed the need for institutions to provide safe learning environments and adequate accommodation for students while ensuring that resources allocated to them were properly managed.
Also speaking, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Chris Piwuna, commended TETFund for its interventions, which he said had continued to positively shape teaching and learning in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
However, Piwuna expressed reservations about some of the education reforms currently being introduced by the Federal Ministry of Education, describing them as policies that had not been adequately thought through.
He particularly questioned the dual mandate granted to Colleges of Education to award both the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) and degree qualifications, including in fields where, according to him, some of the institutions may lack the necessary preparedness.
The ASUU president warned that the policy could face reversal in the future if the challenges surrounding its implementation were not properly addressed.
He urged policymakers to ensure that education reforms were carefully considered and supported by adequate institutional capacity before implementation.
The AUTHORITY reports that the event which witnessed paper presentations and a robust interactive session, also attracted some heads of relevant education agencies and representative of the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education.
