The Federal Government has commenced moves to overhaul the accreditation system for tertiary institutions in the country, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, warning institutions against presenting borrowed staff, equipment and facilities during accreditation exercises.
Alausa said the government was seeking to transform accreditation from a periodic exercise into a continuous, digital and data-driven quality assurance system capable of verifying the actual capacity of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The minister spoke on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
He said the existing system must be strengthened to make it “more transparent, efficient, evidence-based and difficult to manipulate,” stressing that accreditation should provide an accurate picture of an institution’s capacity to deliver quality education.
According to him, institutions should no longer be allowed to create a temporary impression of their capacity merely to satisfy an accreditation team.
“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 persists in the majority of instances,” Alausa said.
He said the government must address situations where academic and non-academic personnel were temporarily moved or presented for accreditation and subsequently returned to other institutions.
“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.
Alausa stressed that whatever an accreditation team sees and verifies must represent the “actual and sustainable capacity” of an institution.
He said the government would deploy technology to strengthen the verification of infrastructure, equipment and personnel, including the use of geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification technologies.
“Critical equipment presented for accreditation should be capable of being digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location.
“Where appropriate, such equipment should have a unique digital record showing its location, status and other relevant information,” the minister said.
On staffing, Alausa called for a comprehensive digital identity management and staff verification framework that would allow regulators to establish the identity, presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented by tertiary institutions.
He said the system should leverage national identity infrastructure and interoperable government databases, subject to data protection laws.
The minister also proposed collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission to use the National Identification Number, alongside BVN infrastructure and other secure technologies, to establish the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.”
He added that the system should be able to detect situations where an individual was improperly presented as full-time personnel in multiple institutions.
Alausa said the reforms were necessary because the current accreditation model largely operates as a periodic exercise conducted every three to five years.
“A longer-term objective should be to move from accreditation as an event to accreditation as a continuous quality assurance process,” he said.
He argued that institutions should maintain prescribed standards throughout the year rather than make special preparations only when accreditation teams were expected.
According to him, a robust digital accreditation platform would allow regulators to continuously maintain and periodically verify information on institutional staffing, facilities, laboratories, workshops and equipment before physical accreditation visits.
“The physical visit will remain important, but it should increasingly serve to validate verified data rather than begin the verification process from scratch,” he said.
The minister said the approach would also enable the National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education and National Commission for Colleges of Education to build reliable institutional histories rather than rely primarily on snapshots obtained during accreditation exercises.
Alausa further disclosed that the Ministry had recently held a collaborative meeting involving the three major tertiary education regulatory bodies and professional regulatory bodies, adding that the government was awaiting advice from the Attorney-General of the Federation on the next steps.
He said a digital platform serving as a “single source of truth” for verified institutional data could help resolve regulatory conflicts and improve coordination among the various bodies.
“The accreditation toolkits that we have been using were developed decades ago. We see conflicts arising,” he said.
The minister said the newly inaugurated committee had been constituted at a “pivotal time” to design a framework capable of aligning accreditation, regulatory and professional bodies.
“One way to do that will be to have a platform where everyone can go and see proof of data. It becomes standardised, and it will be easy and efficient,” he said.
Alausa maintained that the guiding principle of the reform was that what an institution presented for accreditation must be what actually existed and was sustainably available to its students.
“Technology should enable us to move from declarations to verification and from assumptions to evidence.
“This is not technology for its own sake. It is technology developed to protect the integrity of Nigeria’s tertiary education system and the interests of our students,” he said.
He charged the committee to examine the accreditation processes of the NUC, NBTE and NCCE and develop practical recommendations for their modernisation.
He said the ultimate objective was to establish accreditation processes that were “credible, transparent, technology-driven, efficient and based on independently verifiable evidence.”
Earlier, the Director of Polytechnic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Amy Igwe, said the committee was expected to contribute to building a more robust, transparent and credible accreditation system.
Igwe said the initiative reflected the government’s commitment to improving the education sector and protecting the interests of Nigerian students.
She noted that institutions had previously been known to temporarily move or borrow resources and staff for accreditation exercises, saying the new approach should help eliminate such practices.
She urged members of the committee to sacrifice their time and energy towards strengthening the accreditation system for the benefit of the Nigerian child.
The reforms come amid wider efforts by the Federal Government to improve quality assurance and strengthen the integrity of Nigeria’s tertiary education system, particularly as concerns persist over standards, infrastructure, staffing and the alignment of academic programmes with national development needs.
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