Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, NUC
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has released a list of unaccredited courses in Nigerian universities.
The NUC warned that any certificate issued for these courses will be considered void.
The university of Abuja has the highest number of unaccredited courses, having 15 of its courses, including Law, unaccredited.
According to the NUC, 13 federal universities, 16 state universities and eight private universities were running courses that had not been accredited.
The unaccredited courses pose serious danger to students who study them as the certificates issued by these universities for the courses will not be officially recognised.
Reports has it that 2016 accreditation status report indicated that these unaccredited courses were taught in 37 out of 143 universities in the country.
The Quality Assurance Department of the NUC is in charge of accrediting courses in the universities.
The NUC insists that for a course to be accredited, it must meet the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) that has been stipulated by the commission.
Some of the requirements include: “qualified faculty members, good learning environment and adequate teaching materials – equipment, books and journals”.
According to the NUC, accreditation is necessary to ensure “employers and other members of the community that Nigerian graduates of all academic programmes have attained an acceptable level of competency in their areas of specialization.”
It also says it is also important to certify courses to assure “the international community that the programmes offered in Nigerian Universities are of high standards and that graduates of the institutions are adequate for employment and further studies.”
According to the commission, the pre-accreditation process include “drawing up a list of academic programmes to be certified, compilation of list of panel chairmen/members, time-tabling, budgeting and organizing the accreditation coordination meeting for panel chairmen and members in a simulation workshop.”
The post-accreditation activities include “analyzing accreditation …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
