The Federal Government has directed universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to stop presenting borrowed lecturers, equipment, laboratories and other facilities during accreditation exercises.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said tertiary institutions would henceforth be assessed based on the resources they genuinely own and can continuously make available to students.
Alausa announced the policy in Abuja while inaugurating the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
The minister expressed concern that some institutions temporarily bring in academic and non-academic personnel, equipment and other facilities whenever accreditation teams are expected to visit.
According to him, such practices create a misleading picture of an institution’s capacity and undermine the purpose of accreditation.
He stressed that accreditation should provide an accurate assessment of an institution’s ability to deliver quality education rather than reflect facilities and personnel assembled specifically for an inspection.
The Federal Government is therefore seeking to overhaul the existing accreditation framework and transform it into a continuous, technology-driven quality assurance system.
Under the proposed system, regulatory agencies will be expected to independently verify the availability and authenticity of personnel, equipment and infrastructure presented by institutions.
The minister said the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) would strengthen their verification mechanisms to ensure that institutions maintain the resources required for their programmes.
The government also plans to digitally identify critical equipment used during accreditation exercises and link each item to a particular institution and physical location.
Such a system would allow regulators to track the status and location of equipment and make it more difficult for institutions to temporarily move facilities from one institution to another simply to meet accreditation requirements.
Alausa said the government was no longer interested in what institutions could temporarily assemble for accreditation teams but in the resources that remain available to students after the exercise.
He added that the new approach was intended to strengthen quality assurance and ensure that accreditation results accurately reflect the conditions under which students receive their education.
The ministerial committee has consequently been tasked with developing a transparent accreditation framework based on independently verifiable evidence.
The Federal Government’s latest move is expected to increase accountability among tertiary institutions and discourage practices that could compromise academic standards and the quality of graduates produced by Nigerian institutions.
