The Chairman of the Committee of Vice- Chancellors and Registrars of Private Universities , Prof . Timothy Olagbemiro , has said private universities are ready to resume .

Olagbemiro , in an interview with news correspondent , said the private universities had big campuses with small population which would give room for social distancing .

He maintained that resumption would be done in phases , adding that university laboratories also needed to be opened for researches to take place.

“ Once we are given the green light , we will put everything needed in place. We have big campuses with small population . We don ’ t want to resume fully , we want to do it in phases whereby the year one and graduating students can resume to take their final exams after which the year two and three will follow suit .

“ We need the universities to open their laboratories so we can do researches in them . You can ’ t close universities and say you want to do research . ”

He said it was necessary to take cognizance of COVID- 19 while he noted that everyone needed to learn to live with it.

“ It is important that we are careful because of COVID- 19 ; of course , it will stay with us for a long time but we have to provide screening, face mask , sanitisers , temperature checker and the likes for our staff and students , ” Olagbemiro said .

He also appealed to NUC to consider their request to reopen schools .

“ We have written to NUC , they should look in to our request and see if it is visible for us to open our universities . We are also job providers and we need to pay salaries , ” Olagbemiro said .

Punch