The Federal Government has warned heads of tertiary institutions against compromising accreditation exercises, saying officials found manipulating the process risk losing their jobs, while private institutions could have their operating licences revoked.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, issued the warning on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions.
Alausa said the government would no longer tolerate institutions presenting inflated or misleading records of their academic capacity during accreditation exercises, stressing that the quality of graduates produced by Nigerian tertiary institutions must reflect approved regulatory standards.
He said the consequences of weak accreditation were already being felt in the difficulty employers encounter in finding qualified graduates.
“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.
“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 said.
The minister warned that institutions and officials would face consequences for failing to maintain required standards.
“You will lose your job if you don’t act on time. Private institutions will lose their licences,” he added.
Alausa also announced plans to end the practice whereby institutions temporarily borrow academic staff, equipment and facilities from other institutions to meet accreditation requirements.
His position comes amid controversy over the accreditation of the Law programme at Atiba University, Oyo State. In August, the Council of Legal Education imposed a 10-year moratorium on the university’s Law programme, citing inadequate facilities and the admission and graduation of students without requisite approval.
The development has left affected students and their parents seeking government intervention, including possible transfers to accredited Law faculties.
The minister said accreditation must provide an accurate picture of an institution’s actual and sustainable capacity, rather than a temporary representation assembled solely for an accreditation visit.
“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 movement of academic and non-academic personnel, laboratory equipment, workshop resources, library materials and other facilities solely to satisfy accreditation teams.
According to him, whatever an accreditation team sees and verifies must represent the institution’s genuine and sustainable capacity.
Alausa said the reform was aimed at strengthening the credibility, integrity, transparency, efficiency and sustainability of accreditation exercises across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
He tasked the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) with playing critical roles in protecting the quality of tertiary education.
“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 said.
The minister said the government would increasingly deploy technology to transform accreditation from a predominantly manual and periodic exercise into a digital, data-driven and continuously verifiable system.
He advocated the use of geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification technologies for physical infrastructure, laboratories, workshops and major equipment.
“Critical equipment presented for accreditation should be capable of being digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location,” Alausa said.
He also called for a comprehensive digital identity management and staff verification framework to establish the presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented for accreditation.
Alausa said collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) should be explored to utilise the National Identification Number (NIN), alongside appropriate use of Bank Verification Number (BVN) infrastructure and other secure technologies.
He said the proposed system would help establish the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation” and detect cases where individuals are improperly presented as full-time personnel in multiple institutions.
The minister further expressed concern over illegal admissions into tertiary institutions, saying the number had risen to hundreds of thousands.
He attributed the situation partly to the tolerance of irregularities under previous administrations but assured Nigerians that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration would no longer allow such practices to continue.
Responding, Chairman of the committee and former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, pledged the committee’s commitment to addressing abuses in the accreditation process.
Oloyede said accreditation should not be treated as an exercise for which institutions temporarily prepare, stressing that continuous monitoring was necessary to ensure standards were maintained beyond accreditation visits.
He said the committee would also examine ways to better integrate the accreditation processes of regulatory and professional bodies and harmonise relevant criteria to prevent situations where students complete programmes but are unable to proceed to professional training or registration.
Earlier, the Director of Polytechnic Education in the ministry, Mrs Kalau Igwe, said the committee’s inauguration demonstrated the government’s commitment to a more robust, transparent and integrity-driven accreditation system.
Igwe said the practice of borrowing or temporarily moving resources, staff and facilities for accreditation was not limited to universities but also occurred in other tertiary institutions.
The committee’s terms of reference include reviewing existing accreditation policies, standards, guidelines, procedures and operational practices across the tertiary education regulatory framework.
It is also expected to identify loopholes and operational challenges undermining accreditation, strengthen staff and resource verification, and improve the independence and accountability of accreditation panels.
