Chairman of the Board of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has disclosed that conflicting regulatory demands from the NUC and professional regulatory bodies are imposing high and avoidable costs on Nigerian universities and students.

Ogundipe, who stated this while delivering the 16th convocation lecture of Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Osogbo, said overlapping regulatory responsibilities have become a major challenge to the effective administration of university education in the country.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Coping with double oversight: Harmonising the NUC and professional bodies for a sustainable university system, Ogundipe, who is the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), said while professional regulatory bodies have important roles to play in ensuring standards, they should not usurp the statutory responsibilities of the NUC, particularly in matters concerning the admission of students.

According to him, the commission remains the statutory authority responsible for determining whether universities may admit students, and he stressed that professional councils should operate within clearly defined jurisdictional boundaries.

Ogundipe explained that the NUC operates alongside several professional regulatory bodies, including the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the Council of Legal Education (CLE), the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCN) as well as the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN).

He said the situation has become increasingly complex because the different regulatory agencies operate under separate laws, accreditation requirements and professional standards, sometimes resulting in conflicting directives to universities.

He, however, stressed that the solution is not to weaken regulation, but to make it more coherent, predictable and transparent, noting that quality assurance must remain central to the university system.

“Nigeria does not need less regulation of university education; it needs better regulation. Quality assurance must remain non-negotiable,” Ogundipe said.

He identified six major areas of friction between the NUC and professional bodies, including curriculum ownership, accreditation timelines and costs, differences between minimum university standards and professional standards, institutional capacity, resistance to new universities and challenges associated with professional registration after the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

He also identified inadequate data as another major weakness in the regulatory system, warning that poor coordination among regulators could affect institutional planning, academic staffing, students and public confidence in the university system.

The NUC board chairman faulted attempts by professional bodies to determine qualifications for academic positions in tertiary institutions, arguing that the university system must retain responsibility for academic appointments, while professional councils focus on standards within their respective professions.

He said the country also needs to address the gap between its population and the number of universities providing access to tertiary education, while ensuring that expansion does not compromise quality.

To resolve the challenges, the former vice-chancellor proposed a five-pillar framework comprising clear legislative and policy boundaries between regulators, a permanent national consultative mechanism, harmonised accreditation procedures, student-protective developmental accreditation, and a shared national regulatory information platform.

He also called for a national task group, unified regulatory matrices, coordinated accreditation pilots, student-protection protocols, improved regulatory intelligence and collective advocacy as part of measures to implement the proposed reforms.

Ogundipe disclosed that the NUC would require universities to update their institutional data yearly as part of efforts to tackle the problem of academic staff working simultaneously in multiple institutions.

He urged universities to take greater responsibility for maintaining academic standards, while advising graduating students to familiarise themselves with the regulatory requirements governing their professions and to register with the relevant professional bodies.

Earlier, the vice-chancellor of UNIOSUN, Prof. Odunayo Adebooye, said the institution has recorded significant growth in its academic programmes, research activities and postgraduate education.

Adebooye disclosed that the university has increased its undergraduate academic programmes from 66 in 2022 to 128, while its postgraduate programmes have risen from 99 to 299 within the same period.

He added that the university has secured 175 international research grants, describing the development as evidence of growing research capacity and international engagement.

The vice-chancellor said the stability and growth recorded by the university were partly attributable to the character of successive administrations in the state, while describing convocation lectures as important platforms for generating ideas that can influence public policy.