The Federal Government has commenced reforms aimed at strengthening accreditation and quality assurance in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions and ending the practice of temporarily borrowing academic staff, equipment and facilities to meet accreditation requirements.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday while inaugurating the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
Alausa said accreditation exercises must reflect the actual and sustainable capacity of institutions, stressing that required standards should be maintained throughout the year rather than only during accreditation visits.
According to the Minister, the government plans to introduce a digital and data-driven accreditation system that will allow institutions to be continuously monitored and verified.
He directed the committee to develop a system incorporating technologies such as geospatial mapping, geotagging and secure digital records.
The proposed system will be used to verify the identity of academic staff and their institutional affiliations, as well as confirm the ownership, functionality and sustained availability of facilities.
These will include laboratories, workshops, libraries and major academic equipment required for the effective delivery of programmes.
The Minister also called for stronger measures to tackle illegal admissions and other weaknesses within the existing regulatory framework.
He said the reforms are intended to ensure that students are admitted into programmes supported by adequate and functional facilities and qualified personnel.
The committee, chaired by Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has been mandated to review existing accreditation policies and recommend measures to improve monitoring, verification, technology adoption and continuous quality assurance.
The Federal Ministry of Education said it would work with the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that accreditation standards are genuine, functional and sustainably available to students.
The reform is expected to strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s tertiary education system by ensuring that institutions meet accreditation requirements based on their actual capacity rather than temporary arrangements made specifically for accreditation exercises.
