By Adeola Kunle
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has warned tertiary institutions against manipulating accreditation exercises, declaring that officials who compromise the process could lose their jobs, while private institutions found culpable may have their operating licences withdrawn.
Alausa gave the warning on Wednesday in Abuja while inaugurating the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions.
The minister said the Federal Government would no longer accept situations where institutions inflate or misrepresent their academic capacity to satisfy accreditation requirements.
He stressed that the quality of graduates emerging from Nigerian tertiary institutions must correspond with the standards established by the relevant regulatory bodies.
According to Alausa, poor adherence to accreditation standards has contributed to the difficulty many employers experience when searching for suitably qualified graduates.
He explained that employers could receive hundreds of applications for engineering positions without finding enough candidates who possess the required competence.
Alausa warned that such failures would attract consequences, adding that officials and institutions that fail to correct identified shortcomings would be held accountable.
“People say they want to hire engineers. They will have 500 candidates, but they wouldn’t be able to get two, three, four or five qualified applicants. That’s the damage we’re doing to this university.”
The minister added:
“But guess what? This Ministry of Education is not going to let this continue. Other presidents, other governments may have allowed this to continue, but we are not going to let this continue.”
He further warned that institutions and individuals would face sanctions where necessary, stating that private institutions could lose their licences while responsible officials could lose their positions.
Government Moves Against Borrowed Accreditation Resources
Alausa also announced plans to stop the practice of institutions temporarily obtaining academic personnel, equipment and facilities from other institutions simply to meet accreditation requirements.
His position comes against the backdrop of the controversy over the accreditation of the Law programme at Atiba University, Oyo State.
In August, the Council of Legal Education placed a 10-year moratorium on the university’s Law programme. The council cited inadequate facilities and the admission and graduation of students without the necessary approval.
The situation has generated concerns among affected students and their parents, who have called for government intervention, including the possibility of transferring students to accredited Law faculties so that their years of study and financial investments are not lost.
Alausa maintained that accreditation should reveal an institution’s real and sustainable capacity rather than a temporary arrangement created specifically for an inspection.
“An institution should not be able to prepare a temporary picture of itself simply for the purpose of an accreditation visit. Sadly, this is what persists in the majority of instances,” he said.
He said the proposed reforms would address the temporary transfer or presentation of academic and non-academic staff from one institution to another for accreditation purposes.
The same principle, he explained, would cover laboratory equipment, workshop facilities, library resources and other institutional assets that are borrowed or temporarily moved to create a false impression of capacity.
According to the minister, everything inspected and verified by an accreditation team must genuinely belong to the institution’s normal and sustainable operational capacity.
Digital Technology to Transform Accreditation
Alausa said the reform programme would strengthen the credibility, integrity, transparency, efficiency and sustainability of accreditation across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
He identified the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) as key institutions responsible for safeguarding the quality of tertiary education.
The minister argued that institutions should not only satisfy regulatory requirements when an accreditation team is scheduled to visit but should maintain those standards throughout the year.
“An institution should not meet prescribed standards only when the NUC, NBTE or NCCE accreditation team is expected to visit. Those standards should be met every day of the year.”
He proposed the establishment of a robust digital accreditation platform through which institutional information could be continuously updated and periodically verified.
Under such a system, accrediting agencies would have access to reliable information about staffing, laboratories, workshops, facilities and equipment before inspection teams arrive.
Alausa said physical accreditation visits would remain necessary but should increasingly be used to confirm information that has already been digitally verified rather than starting the verification process afresh.
He clarified that the committee was not established to undermine the existing accreditation framework but to modernise and reinforce it through processes that are transparent, evidence-based, efficient and more difficult to manipulate.
Staff, Equipment Verification
The minister directed the committee to develop effective methods for confirming the authenticity and continuous availability of academic and non-academic personnel presented by institutions during accreditation.
It is also expected to create systems for verifying the ownership, functionality, adequacy, accessibility and continued availability of facilities and equipment presented for accreditation.
Alausa called for the application of technologies such as geospatial mapping, geotagging and appropriate digital identification systems to track physical infrastructure, laboratories, workshops and major equipment.
He said critical equipment used to demonstrate institutional capacity should be digitally identifiable and connected to the institution and its actual physical location.
“Critical equipment presented for accreditation should be capable of being digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location,” he said.
NIN and BVN Infrastructure Proposed for Staff Verification
The minister further advocated a comprehensive digital identity and staff verification framework that would establish the identity, presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented during accreditation.
He said the framework should operate within existing laws and data protection requirements while making use of national identity infrastructure and interoperable government databases.
Alausa said the ministry would explore collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to make appropriate use of the National Identification Number (NIN), alongside relevant Bank Verification Number (BVN) infrastructure and other secure digital technologies.
According to him, the proposed system would reinforce the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.”
It would also help identify situations where the same individual is improperly presented as full-time staff by multiple institutions.
Minister Raises Concern Over Illegal Admissions
Alausa also expressed concern about the continued occurrence of illegal admissions into tertiary institutions, revealing that the number of such admissions had reached hundreds of thousands.
He attributed part of the problem to the tolerance of irregular practices under previous administrations but assured Nigerians that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would no longer permit such practices to continue.
Oloyede Pledges Committee’s Commitment
Responding on behalf of the committee, its Chairman and former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, assured that the committee would work towards eliminating abuses within the accreditation system.
Oloyede said accreditation should not be regarded as an event for which institutions temporarily assemble resources and personnel.
He emphasised the importance of continuous monitoring to ensure that institutions maintain required standards after accreditation teams have left.
The committee chairman also said attention would be given to improving collaboration between regulatory and professional bodies.
According to him, their accreditation processes need to be better coordinated and based on appropriate criteria to prevent situations in which students complete academic programmes but later discover that they cannot proceed to professional training or registration.
Ministry Reaffirms Commitment to Quality Assurance
Earlier, the Director of Polytechnic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Kalau Igwe, said the inauguration of the committee demonstrated the government’s determination to establish a stronger, transparent and integrity-based accreditation system.
Igwe noted that the practice of borrowing or temporarily relocating staff, equipment and facilities for accreditation was not peculiar to universities, stressing that similar practices occurred in other categories of tertiary institutions.
She expressed confidence that the committee would contribute to creating a more credible accreditation framework, improving educational standards and protecting the interests of Nigerian students.
The committee has been assigned several responsibilities, including reviewing existing accreditation policies, standards, guidelines, procedures and operational practices across Nigeria’s tertiary education regulatory framework.
It is also expected to identify loopholes and operational challenges affecting the credibility of accreditation exercises, strengthen the verification of staff and institutional resources, and improve the independence and accountability of accreditation panels.
Adeola Kunle
No comments:
Post a Comment