The Federal Government has announced plans to tighten accreditation procedures for tertiary institutions, saying schools will no longer be allowed to rely on borrowed lecturers, equipment or facilities to secure approval for academic programmes.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in Abuja while inaugurating a ministerial committee tasked with strengthening accreditation and quality assurance across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Alausa said the existing system must be changed to ensure that accreditation exercises reflect the actual capacity of institutions rather than resources brought together temporarily for the purpose of inspection.
According to him, some institutions have resorted to bringing in personnel and facilities from elsewhere when accreditation teams arrive, creating an impression that they possess resources that may not be available for students after the exercise.
The minister said the government would instead require regulators to establish that lecturers, laboratories, equipment and other essential resources presented during accreditation are genuinely available and can be sustained by the institutions.
He added that the reform was intended to strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s tertiary education system and ensure that students are admitted into programmes backed by adequate and verifiable academic resources.
