The National Universities Commission (NUC) on Wednesday warned that two-year undergraduate degrees are not acceptable in Nigeria as
several African countries have continued to award degrees within two years or
less.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Rasheed
Abubakar, who gave the warning in Abuja at the 11th International Conference and
Workshop on Quality Assurance in Higher Education In Africa (ICQAHEA), said
Nigerian citizens who go to neighbouring African universities to obtain degrees
in less than two years and come back to serve in the NYSC scheme will not be
recognised.
He said: “Sometimes, countries in Africa allow their
universities to award degrees in six months. In Africa, many countries allow
one or half-year for a degree.
“In some of our West African countries, two-year
space is even on the high side. From your secondary school, in one and half
years, you come back to Nigeria with a degree, and you want to go for NYSC, but
we tell them we don’t have legal jurisdiction outside Nigeria. But we advise
you that anyone with a secondary education who claims to have a degree in less
than two years should not be recognised.
“We find it very difficult for some of our sister
countries to allow some of their institutions to award degrees for just one
year,” the NUC boss added.
Rasheed, while lamenting over institutions coming
into Nigeria to advertise illegally and open campuses noted that the Commission
would approach the issue aggressively.
He called on African universities to open doors for
industries to come and teach high-level manpower in their universities in order
to develop the continent, adding that Nigerian universities should prioritise
English language clinics for the teaching of the language to students of
non-English countries who come for programmes in Nigeria.
Speaking on the theme: ‘Towards Sustainability of
the Continental Harmonisation Agenda of Higher Education in Africa’, Rasheed
said quality assurance has been a major issue in Africa, and to overcome it,
all African universities must come together and harmonise their ideologies.
Earlier, the Minister of State for Education, Hon Chukwuemeka
Nwajuba, said despite the growth of higher education in Nigeria, the challenge
of access, particularly to universities, was worrisome.
According to him, the government will work on
increasing the carrying capacity of Nigerian universities and licencing of more
private universities in order to address the challenge.
He said suggestions and deliberations at the end of
the conference are expected to promote quality assurance in the African
universities.
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