FG Warns Universities Against ‘Borrowed’ Staff, Equipment for Accreditation

By Anwar Usman


The Federal Government has warned tertiary institutions against presenting borrowed lecturers, equipment, laboratories and other facilities during accreditation exercises to give a false impression of their capacity.

The minister made this known in Abuja at the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria which was chaired by the immediate past Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ish-aq Oloyede.

He stated that institutions would henceforth be assessed strictly on the resources they genuinely own and can sustainably make available to students, stressing that the practice of borrowing facilities to deceive accreditation teams would no longer be tolerated.

He further revealed that, government is doing its best to overhaul the accreditation system for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to prevent institutions from creating a “temporary picture” of their capacity whenever accreditation teams visit.

He said accreditation process is designed to provide an accurate picture of an institution’s ability to deliver quality education, but showed concern that some institutions temporarily assemble personnel and facilities solely to satisfy accreditation requirements.

“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 we see in a majority of instances,” the minister said.

He said the government would tackle the temporary movement of academic and non-academic personnel to institutions ahead of accreditation visits.

“We must similarly address the temporary movement, borrowing or presentation of equipment, laboratory facilities, workshop resources, library materials and other infrastructure solely for accreditation purposes,” he said.

The minister further revealed that, the government would no longer be satisfied with what institutions merely present to accreditation teams, insisting that regulators must be able to verify that the resources actually exist and remain available after the accreditation exercise.

“When an accreditation team visits an institution, what it sees and verifies should represent the actual and sustainable capacity of that institution, not an arrangement assembled for the accreditation exercise,” he said.

The Guardian reports that, the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) would be required to strengthen mechanisms for verifying the authenticity and continuous availability of staff, facilities and equipment.

The government also plans to deploy technology to track institutional resources.

According to Alausa, critical equipment presented for accreditation should be digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location.

Such equipment, he said, should have a unique digital record indicating its location, status and other relevant information.

The minister also announced plans for tighter verification of personnel presented by institutions during accreditation.

He said the government would develop a digital identity-management and staff-verification framework to establish that individuals presented as academic and non-academic staff are genuinely associated with the institutions claiming them.