Rear Admiral Muktar Bashir, the Commandant, National Defence College (NDC), has said the institution has concluded plans to include a Master’s degree programme in the school’s curriculum as it is now ripe for it.

Bashir made the disclosure at the opening of the Steering Group Retreat of NDC with the theme, “Advancing by Retreating”, on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the college was working on the possibility of it awarding a Master’s degree for the participants on completion of the 11 months course.

According to him, participants of NDC usually had to go to the University of Ibadan or the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) for another six months for them to get a master’s degree.

He said the college was worried that after 30 years of its existence, it had come of age to award degrees to its participants after 11 months, adding that it was the global best practice.

“That is why we are having partners from the National Universities Commission (NUC), University of Ibadan, National Defence College and other stakeholders so that we brainstorm and see how we can factor master’s degree into the curriculum.

“In the long run, we will make the curriculum to be more robust and more responsive to our needs as a nation,” he said.

The commandant said the retreat was designed to take stock of the curriculum, most especially, to make it more responsive to current realities such as the introduction of new courses.

He added that the retreat was also expected to enhance bonding and understanding of issues facing the nation, as well as supporting the whole of society approach to addressing the issues.

The commandant said the dynamic nature of the world had continued to affect many things around the globe such as the COVID-19.

Others, according to him include security challenges and resurgence of political instability in parts of the world.

“We are also seeing the advent of artificial intelligence that has birthed sophisticated technologies which are becoming game changers in almost everything that we do.

“This and so many other things would definitely dictate global events for some time to come.

“We need to factor all these things into our curriculum to make it more responsive to current realities on the ground,” he added.

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The Deputy Commandant, NDC, Maj.-Gen. Emeka Onumajuru said the retreat was organised to take stock and reset for optimal performance, saying that an organisation either transform, innovate or dies.

Onumajuru said the retreat would undertake to approach the activities of the college in the context of its mission.

He said that to this effect, it was important that the college curriculum and programmes be tweaked to reflect contemporary demands in knowledge and research to meet global best practices.

“It is expected that this faculty retreat will assist in repositioning the college to better deliver its mandate to help educate this generation of strategic leaders,” he said.