The government also placed a seven-year embargo on establishing new federal tertiary institutions to prevent duplication or redundant universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
The decision was taken at Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, told State House correspondents that the move was necessary to address deteriorating infrastructure and manpower in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
“In our country, access to quality financial education is no longer an issue,” Alausa said.
“What we are witnessing today is duplication of new federal tertiary institutions, a significant reduction in the current capacity of each institution, and degradation of both physical infrastructure and manpower.
“If we do not act decisively, it will lead to marked declines in educational quality and undermine the international respect that Nigerian graduates command.”
The minister explained that some previously approved institutions had suffered from “none patronage,” which the government hopes to avoid in the future.
“We are doing this to further halt decays in tertiary institutions which may in future affect the quality of education and consequently cause unemployment of graduates from some of these institutions,” he added.
Alausa disclosed that the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending establishment requests for tertiary institutions.
After applying stricter approval guidelines, the number was trimmed to 79. He said out of these, nine new private universities were cleared by the council on Wednesday.