THE Lagos State Government has set up the Lagos State Tertiary Education Trust Fund as a revolutionary model of funding tertiary education in the country.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced this today when he received members of the Visitation Panel to the Lagos State University (LASU), led by the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, (UNILAG), Professor Abdulrahman Bello, at the State House, Marina.
A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Gboyega Akosile, said Sanwo-Olu mentioned the need to create an independent funding channel for the state’s tertiary institutions as having become pertinent, given the nature of disputes characterising the national university system.
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The disputes, the governor pointed out, had led to perennial staff strikes and closure of campuses across the country.
None of the three tertiary institutions in Lagos is taking part in the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, though.
Sanwo-Olu said the Fund would be a pragmatic strategy to meeting the schools’ requirements.
The governor directed the state’s Attorney-General, Moyosore Onigbanjo, and the Special Adviser on Education, Tokunbo Wahab, to fashion out the statutory framework that will give legal approval to the Fund.
He said, “Now that we have three universities in Lagos, I believe there is a need for us to set up the Lagos State Tertiary Education Trust Fund, which, in our view, will create a sustainable model and the funding that is required, both internally and externally, to strengthen academic research, learning and all that is necessary to keep these universities on track of their mission.
“This is an idea whose time has come at the appropriate period many schools are under closure due to industrial disputes. I am issuing the responsibility to the Attorney-General and Special Adviser on Education to create the legal framework for the birth of the Trust Fund.
“This will be another legacy initiative our Government is bringing to sustain education in our State. This will create a financial model that will ensure sustainability of these schools.”
Sanwo-Olu said the Trust Fund would create an additional funding source to the three universities, aside the monthly subventions and intervention funds from federal education agencies, including the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
He also tasked the LASU Visitation Panel to birth a new order of growth for the university, which was ranked as the second best university in Nigeria by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings in 2020.
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