By Gabriel Dike, Lagos

The Vice Chancellor of Christopher University (UNICHRIS), Mowe, Ogun State, Prof Oyelana Olatunji, explained on Monday why private universities experience low enrollment of students during admission exercise.

Prof Olatunji, who spoke during the UNICHRIS pre-convocation briefing, said contrary to the insinuations, school fees of private universities are not the main reason for the low enrollment of students but the non-professional programmes offered by the private universities.

The VC flanked by the Registrar, Mr Aloysius Udeoke, Bursar, Mr Chinedu Eze and acting University Librarian, Mrs Ogechi Lily Agu, said some private universities struggle to meet their carrying capacity because of the kind of programmes they offer.

“The type of academic programmes mounted by the private universities are not specialised courses and not attractive to students. The National Universities Commission (NUC) approved such courses based on the presentation of such institutions,” he stated.

“Most private universities are struggling to get enough students enrolled into such non-professional courses. Under my administration, we revised our academic brief to mount specialised courses. Now we are running professional programmes, by next year, our enrollment figure will hit 500 students.”

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Olatunj confirmed that NUC has given the university approval to run professional courses in Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Basic Medical Sciences and Pharmacy.

According to him, the Law programme commenced in the 2022/2023 academic session with 100-level students.

The VC disclosed that the convocation lecture would be delivered by Chief Anthony Idigbe and under the chairman of NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed while the special guest is Ogun Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun and his Anambra State counterpart Prof. Charles Soludo.

The Registrar of UNICHRIS, Mr Aloysius Udeoke, said the convocation is for three academic sessions and 90 students would graduate while seven students obtained First Class.

Udeoke said aside from the seven First Class graduates, which represent 15 per cent, Second Class Upper are 45 Percent, Second Class Lower 28 per cent and Third Class/Pass grade 12 per cent.