The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has criticised a new Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) policy that categorises public universities into “tenable” and “non-tenable” institutions under its Academic Staff Training and Development (AST&D) local postgraduate scholarship programme.
ASUU National President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, described the classification as discriminatory and argued that it goes beyond TETFund’s statutory responsibilities.
Piwuna said the policy could undermine fairness in the public university system by effectively creating a distinction between institutions eligible for certain forms of academic support and those considered unsuitable.
He maintained that TETFund’s mandate under the TETFund Act is centred on managing and deploying the education tax paid by companies to support the development of tertiary institutions across the country.
According to him, the fund was established to rehabilitate, restore and improve tertiary education infrastructure and capacity, rather than determine which public universities should be regarded as suitable destinations for postgraduate training.
Piwuna warned that concentrating postgraduate scholarship opportunities in a limited number of universities could create excessive pressure on those institutions.
He said such a situation could result in overcrowding and place additional demands on academic supervisors, particularly given the shortage of qualified academics across several disciplines.
The ASUU president also expressed concern that universities classified as “non-tenable” could suffer declining enrolment and lose the confidence of students and researchers.
He argued that the classification could also affect the morale of academics working in the institutions and further weaken universities that require investment to improve their academic capacity.
Rather than excluding institutions, ASUU urged TETFund and the Federal Government to channel resources towards improving facilities, strengthening academic manpower and addressing gaps in postgraduate training across public universities.
The union said a more equitable approach would involve supporting institutions to meet required standards instead of limiting access to development opportunities based on their current deficiencies.
Piwuna further argued that using TETFund resources to sustain what he described as discriminatory institutional classifications was inconsistent with the objectives of the fund’s establishing legislation.
ASUU said it would continue to oppose policies that, in its view, could compromise equitable development within Nigeria’s public university system or expose TETFund to undue institutional or individual interests.
