The National Universities Commission mentioned that they are working hard to reopen universities after they were closed by force due to the advent of Coronavirus in Abuja yesterday,
The Commission mentioned that it was collecting data on the different assessment in preparedness by the various universities through their head, the vice-chancellors, to ascertain if the universities were safe for academic and non-academic duties.
Dr Suleiman Ramon Yusuf, Deputy Executive Secretary of the NUC (Academics), mentioned this during a briefing to showcase NUCs contributions to national response since the inception of the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, a total of 32 universities in the country were carrying out researches on a solution to the dreaded coronavirus in the country.
He acknowledged that while only a few universities were able to continue with research during the pandemic, he is optimistic that these few “have demonstrated the need for a well-funded and robustly organized national research and innovation system to catalyse the national response.”
He mentioned that a reasonable number of vice-chancellors have submitted their reports on their level of preparedness so far, adding that once the process is concluded the commission would make a statement either to direct the universities to go-ahead to reopen schools or not.
