Despite its upgrade to university status two years ago, the Maitama Yusuf Sule Federal University of Education, Kano, has continued with its National Certificate of Education (NCE) academic programmes.

The school was upgraded in 2023 alongside three others, namely: Federal College of Education, Zaria, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, and Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Oweri, to enhance enrolment and accommodate prospective students seeking university admission.

The conversion followed the approval of the Federal Executive Council, presided over by President Bola Tinubu, who also approved the renaming of the school in honour of the foremost northern politician, Maitama Sule. 

However, there are concerns that the college is yet to fully transform into a fully-fledged degree-awarding institution two years after, as stakeholders blame the council and management for their failure to implement the necessary policies.

Apart from the name change and the elevation of the Provost to Acting Vice-Chancellor, there is nothing in place to reflect the institution’s new status.

More worrisome is the fact that the school’s recent advertisement for the 2025/2026 admission was placed for NCE programmes.

Although the Federal government has constituted the university’s governing council headed by Prof Ahmad Adamu, the council is yet to invoke the necessary provisions to set the institution on the right path.

Investigations by The Guardian showed that no step has been taken to place both academic and non-academic staff on the appropriate cadre, in line with the university’s administrative system.

This action was said to have been allegedly delayed to frustrate the constitution of the university Senate.

Besides, it was alleged that the management deliberately refused to enrol the school on the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) platform, to delay application for degree programmes in the university.

A 200-level NCE student, Habeeb Ahmad, told The Guardian that the entire upgrade of the college to university is still strange to many students because the university management has not made any clear statement on how the conversion will take full course. 

Ahmad appealed to the management to release details of the university courses to enable students to prepare for the new development ahead of time. 

Another student of English Education, Ghazali Abubakar, claimed there wasn’t anything on the ground to suggest the institution has been upgraded to a university status.

“As far as I am concerned, this school is still a college of education, the last students admitted were for NCE programmes, and that was after the conversion.”

But the Chairman, College of Education Academic Staff Union (COASU), Dr Ado Muhammad, said the management should not be blamed for the delayed take-off of the university. 

Mohammed noted that despite the efforts of the management to effect full migration to a degree-awarding institution, the process of transition from college to university cannot be done overnight. 

Besides, he said the federal government would need to constitute a new council for the institution as the Pro-Chancellor is currently the Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), making it impossible for him to function in the same capacity.

“Since the conversion, we have been in the process of transitioning from college to university. The National Universities Commission (NUC) has sent a resource visitation team to assess our resources. This is part of the transition process.

“Again, don’t forget we are also yet to have an Act that will enable us to run as a substantive university. The university is also trying its best to enrol on the JAMB platform, which has not been done due to some unresolved issues.”

However, a senior academic staff member in the college, Dr AbdulKareem Tijani, insisted that the university management and council did not need any external influence to give effect to the framework that will set the university on a sound footing. 

Tijani said the management and council failed to do the needful on the upgrade of staff, enrollment on the JAMB platform, and even to query the continued stay of the acting Vice Chancellor after the expiration of his tenure. 

“The delay in commencing the degree programme brought about suspicion, while other institutions are implementing the transition process, we continue to align ourselves with the old unions and meet with the colleges of education platform at the national level to truncate the transition of this college to a university. 

“The university council have been operating with incomplete membership, no college, Senate, congregation, alumni or community representation on the council.

“From the time of the upgrade till now, only one person has been acting as Vice Chancellor. He was appointed for six months, which ended in February 2025, but he has continued in the seat without any formal communication,” Tijani lamented.

Efforts to clear the doubts concerning the role of the management were unsuccessful. Although the acting Vice Chancellor was available during The Guardian’s fact-finding visit, he declined to comment, while both the deputy Provost and Registrar said they were too busy to speak on the issue.