Private University asks IGG to stay off NCHE inspections

A PRIVATELY owned university, Great Lakes Regional University has written to the Inspector General of Government asking her to step aside and let the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), meet them.

The university, had been shielded from having an inquisition meeting with the NCHE, on claims that a whistleblower had alleged that there was abuse of office at the university regulators’ secretariat.

The impasse started early June this year, when the IGG wrote to the NCHE ordering them to halt the planned meetings it had planned with three universities. The three universities included; Team University, King Caesar University, and Great Lakes Regional University; and the NCHE needed to meet them over non-compliance of the set guidelines under their provisional licenses they do hold.

But, five days to the meeting, IGG Beti Kamya wrote to NCHE and copied in the three respective universities, claiming that she received a complaint from a whistleblower alleging abuse of office of some of the staff at NCHE, who allegedly hold private universities at ransom because of their unwillingness to connive with officials of the National Council for Higher education.

The letter reads, “I therefore order you to stop any further action with respect to the meeting to take place on June 13, 2022 at noon, at NCHE Secretariat until investigations are concluded, or until further orders are issued by this office to the contrary.”

However, Great Lakes Regional University’s wrote to the IGG, asking her to back off and let the NCHE proceed with its work. Great Lakes Regional University says that an engagement with the NCHE will enable it continue with the process of application for the Charter.

The university also told the IGG, that they hope that their engagement with the NCHE would enable them handle the re-accreditation of their academic programmes, and the halted graduation of 113 students who completed studies in 2019 and 2020.