The Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Abayomi Fasina, on Tuesday urged President-elect Bola Tinubu to prioritise university autonomy upon assumption of duty.

Mr Fasina made the appeal during the fourth matriculation ceremony of postgraduate students of the university held in Oye-Ekiti.

He said that a major challenge facing public universities in Nigeria was incessant strike actions by Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) as a result of poor funding and lack of infrastructure.

Mr Fasina also advised the president-elect to appoint technocrats as ministers for agriculture, education and finance in order to ensure stability and efficiency of his government.

“I want to appeal to our incoming president-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu to approve university autonomy which will put an end to incessant strike that always affect the academic calendar of the tertiary institutions.

“FUOYE is moving on a high speed to ensure that our academic calendar is stable and working, but other univeristies are badly affected as a result of prolonged strike.

“If government can employ technocrat who are expert in various field such as education, economy, agriculture and business, the development of Nigeria will be rapid in all ramifications,” he said.

The don said FUOYE was determined to compete favourably with other older universities in postgraduate studies while his administration would not relent in producing the best students in various academic fields.

Mr Fasina advised the postgraduate students to attend lectures regularly and carry out their research diligently to enable them finish their programme in record time.

He noted that scholarship awards for best research students and best thesis would soon be introduced in the post graduate school.

The vice chancellor stated that postgraduate school would soon be offering courses in Mass Communication, Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Linguistics and Language Education.

Others are Public Administration, History and International Studies, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Science Education, Business Administration and Political Science.

Corroborating Mr Fasina’s submission, the Dean of Postgraduate school of the university, Prof. Raphael Omolehin, said the major challenge facing the rapid growth of universities was lack of autonomy.

“The university management does not have power to employ academic staff without taking permission from different government agencies,” the dean said.

He urged the federal government to provide adequate funds for universities and improve staff welfare to end incessant strike, which often altered the academic calendar.

(NAN)