The National Universities Commission (NUC), has said that the part-time programmes being run by universities in the country had only been suspended and not scrapped.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, told newsmen in Abuja last Thursday, that this was contrary to rumours going round that the part-time programmes had been scrapped.

The NUC on June 29 announced the suspension of all part-time programmes being run by universities in the country.

Okojie said that the commission had observed that most of the universities were running part time programmes outside the university campuses without disclosing the number of students on the programme.

He attributed this development to the money the universities were making from the programme, adding that NUC had been dialoguing with the universities that were running part time programmes for a long time on the need to enhance the quality of the programmes.

Okojie said that recently, the Lagos State University (LASU) graduated 22, 000 students in which majority of them were from the part-time programmes of the institution.

He said that the state universities were admitting more than the required students into the part time programmes for reasons best known to them. “From now on, only 20 per cent of programmes accredited can be on the part time programme.’’

He said that NUC would not allow more than 20 per cent of the total students in every university to engage in part time programmes.

Okojie said that the commission was planning to implement a quality assurance programme of staff and students ratio for part time programmes.

He said that the commission would ensure that the same lecturers’ who were teaching in the full time programmes would also be engaged in the part time programmes.