It could be recalled that Section 12 of the 2005 University Act states that ‘Each University shall have a Chancellor who shall be the President of Sierra Leone and Section 13 subsection (1) also states that the Chancellor shall be the head of every University, other than a private university.’

In order to actualize his promise, President Bio informed his audience that the 2005 University Act will be reviewed to reflect many other changes in the coming months. He added that the conditions of institutions of higher learning and in particular the citadel of knowledge- University of Sierra Leone and Njala University are ‘deplorable’ and need urgent administrative and other changes to make them better institutions of learning.

President Bio was speaking at the State Opening of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic when he made the promise.

He further informed parliament that the creation of a separate Ministry of Technical and Higher Education will solely focus on improving technical and higher education in the country. He maintained that Science and Technology is the bedrock for the development of any modern economy, but that he has observed that over the years, schools and colleges grew lack of basic facilities for scientific research. He promised however that in this direction, his government would set up a Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation to develop a framework for scientific research.

President Bio acknowledged that the country had lost its glory of being the Athens of West Africa; adding that it requires urgent drastic innovative steps to bring this back this accolade.