Pre-degree and diploma programmes in Nigerian universities have been
scrapped. The National Universities Commission (NUC), which took the
action, instructed them to leave the running of such programmes for
polytechnics and concentrate effort on producing human capital in the
core undergraduate, part-time and post-graduate courses.
Executive
Secretary of the commission, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, gave this
order at meetings held between October 10 and 12 with vice chancellors
of the 143 universities in the country, according to a statement by the
NUC yesterday.
He also directed that the research directorate of
NUC be strengthened to work with those of universities. This is to
co-ordinate research activities in universities and ensure relevance of
their outputs. He said the NUC, would engage a mix of old, experienced
and young vibrant academics to come up with curricula that would not
only be dynamic and responsive to national needs, but also conform to
global trends.
The statement continued: “A comprehensive
review of the entire university curricula (the Benchmark Minimum
Academic Standards (BMAS)) and ranking of Nigerian universities have
also been scheduled for 2017, while two of the cardinal activities of
the commission, accreditation of programmes and resource verification,
will now take place only twice and thrice a year, respectively: May and
November for accreditation as well as March, July and December for
resource verification.”
NUC also warned that any university that
failed to present its programmes for accreditation promptly without
satisfactory reasons, given well in advance, would be denied same and
the relevant agencies (JAMB and NYSC) duly notified.
“The
accreditation of part-time programmes would ensure that they are of the
same quality as the full-time programmes, thereby restoring public
confidence in them,” it said.
Rasheed urged universities to
identify their areas of strength to mount joint Ph.D. programmes in view
of increasing cost of training overseas.
He enjoined the vice
chancellors to be creative and innovative enough to come up with new
courses and programmes that would address emerging societal challenges.
He expressed NUC’s readiness to work with them to develop the BMAS for such new programmes.