NUC issues licence for take-off of University of Ilesha

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has issued a provisional license for the establishment of Ilesha University in Osun.

The Executive Secretary, NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, while granting the license to the Governor of Osun, Adegboyega Oyetola, said that the establishment of the university would make it the 60th state university and the 220th in the country.

Rasheed said that the establishment of the new university was one of the important legacies that any leader would leave anywhere in the world.

He praised the governor for this gesture saying that the university would focus on Agriculture and Health Sciences to produce graduates that would be relevant to the state and would also boost its economy.

“It is worth saying that at this moment when you are about to leave office, you are still learning a legacy for the State and humanity.

“Having reviewed this writing and the way the state supported the alleged restructuring of Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho, we promised that whenever the state wants a university, we will be ready to support.

“That time has come and having fulfilled the requirements resulting from the receipt of your letter and the earlier submission of the necessary documents, I write on behalf of the NUC that as of Thursday 10 November, the University of Ilesha is recognized as the 60th State and 220th University of Nigeria.

“We want the university to take full advantage of the technical details of the abstract.

“Letter, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have been notified of the establishment of this university,” it said.

Rasheed added that the university was necessary as only two million enrolments could not meet the educational needs of the country’s more than 200 million people.

He said that the 111 private universities in the country could only concentrate 6 percent of the combined enrolment, while public universities absorbed 94 percent, hence the need to establish the new state university.

In his response, Oyetola said that the establishment of the university was aimed at contributing to the development of human resources needed to drive growth in Osun and Nigeria.

Oyetola said the university was born from the August 6, 2021 visit of a delegation of Ijesa elites to his office to request the upgrade of the 44-year-old Ilesha College of Education to a full-fledged university.

“I assured the visiting delegation of our intention to critically review the application to determine the merit of the application and the ability of the Osun government to sustain another university of international repute.

Subsequently, we commissioned a reputable KPMG firm to advise the government on the sustainability of the initiative and the firm provided a favorable report.

I previously conveyed the Osun government’s decision to upgrade the institution, recognized as the oldest remaining College of Education, to a full-fledged university on March 31.

“The establishment of Ilesa University is a necessary gap between qualified candidates and available space at existing higher institutions within the state, as education remains the main industry in Osun,” he said.

He added that higher education anywhere in the world is a true driver of human development, innovation, technological advancement and resource exploration.

According to him, higher education is critical for future wealth creation, better socioeconomic achievement, efficient agro-economics, and mining technology in the current dispensation of the knowledge economy.

Oyetola said that the rise in the pursuit of knowledge further strengthens the importance of higher education in this 21st century.

“Higher education institutions are also critical and central to the development of well-rounded leaders and qualified personnel in all areas of human activities.

This calls for the need to develop our current education college into a full-fledged university to train and equip a diverse group of young people with professional skills, entrepreneurship, and innovative insights, especially in agribusiness, mining, and health.

“The new University of Ilesa will focus on agriculture and agribusiness to address food insecurity, mining technology will draw on the abundant gold deposit in Ijesaland, and medical sciences to enhance the need for human resources in the health sector. “, said.

Likewise, former state governor Chief Bisi Akande said that with the new university, Osun now qualifies as a center of knowledge.

Akande, however, wants the commission to educate Nigerians on the need to give importance to numeracy and literacy education.

According to him, Nigeria should aspire to be more educated to catch up with the developed world.

Therefore, he reiterated that the new university had been carefully conceived as a complete entrepreneurial and innovative institution that would be financed through a combination of sources such as government, community, industry and other stakeholders.