The Federal Government has approved the 2022 intervention funds for public higher institutions across the Country.

The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sunday Echono, disclosed this while receiving in his office, the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) in Abuja.

Echono said the meeting of all beneficiary institutions would be held Monday to interact further and brief including some of the proposed reforms that have been approved for implementation.

He assured the Vice Chancellors of the fund’s commitment to sustain the ongoing reforms in the sector, with increased emphasis on the content of its interventions particularly in the areas of research, ICT and in the areas of encouraging a reading culture in our society through publication of books.

“We have existing partnerships, particularly the deputization of Thesis. We are confident that once this is accomplished it will not only provide open learning resources for researchers and students who want to access previous works done in their respective areas of research but also promote a culture of academic excellence.

“One of the problems off our education today is the quality of our graduates, particularly the quality of thesis. Many students plagiarize peoples work.

“We believe in anti-plagiarism device as you have developed will go a long way in dictating this and ensuring compliance. Indeed, we have adopted a policy in TETFund that going forward, all proposals coming to us must go through your system and receive certification that it has passed a minimum standard that is required and for all publishers and authors before it can benefit from our support.

“On the issue of support, I’m pleased to inform you that Mr President has just approved the 2022 disbursement proposals and guidelines and the meeting of all beneficiary institutions will be held by next week Monday to interact further and brief including some of the proposed reforms that have been approved for implementation.

“At the heart of this is the issue of journals. We are keen and determine to ensure that publications are useful, relevant and are also current that can be sited anywhere in the world,” he added.

He also lamented the amount of resources being spent in sending children abroad for studies, urging Universities, especially private ones to create a niche and compete with Foreign Universities that are attracting out students in order to save cost.

Earlier, the chairman of the CVC, Prof Samuel Gowon Edoumiekumo, expressed confidence that Echono would continue with the trajectories of the past leadership and introduce new vistas that will add value to higher education provisioning in the country.