FG Moves to End ‘Borrowed Staff, Equipment’ in Tertiary Institutions Accreditation

From Babangida Abdullahi Gusau

The Federal Government has commenced major reforms aimed at strengthening accreditation and quality assurance in 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, CON, disclosed this in Abuja while inaugurating the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.

Alausa said accreditation must reflect the actual and sustainable capacity of an institution, stressing that prescribed standards should be maintained throughout the year rather than only during accreditation visits.

He directed the committee to develop a digital, data-driven and continuously verifiable accreditation system that would deploy technologies such as geospatial mapping, geotagging and secure digital records.

According to him, the proposed system will verify the identity of academic staff and their institutional affiliations, as well as the ownership, functionality and sustained availability of facilities, laboratories, workshops, libraries and major equipment.

The minister also called for stronger measures to tackle illegal admissions and other weaknesses in the regulatory system.

The committee, chaired by Professor Ishaq Oloyede, is expected to review existing policies and recommend measures to strengthen monitoring, verification, technology adoption and continuous quality assurance in tertiary institutions.

Alausa said the Ministry would collaborate with the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and other stakeholders to ensure that accreditation standards are authentic, functional and sustainably available to students.