Alausa directs vice-chancellors to take over advancement offices

The Federal Government has warned against the practice of tertiary institutions borrowing lecturers, equipment, laboratories, and other facilities to deceive accreditation teams, and has warned that, henceforth, institutions must be assessed on the resources they genuinely own and can sustainably provide to students.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government was moving 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.

Alausa spoke in Abuja at the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.

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

Alausa said 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.

Alausa charged the ministerial committee to develop a credible, transparent and technology-driven accreditation framework based on independently verifiable evidence.

In another development, Alausa has directed all vice-chancellors of federal universities in the country to move the advancement offices out of the office of the registrar and place them under the vice-chancellors’ office.

Speaking in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the first National University Advancement Programme Forum meant for the vice chancellors and officials working in the advancement offices of federal universities organised by the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation (NHEF) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education, he said the vice-chancellors of Nigerian universities needed to rebuild their advancement offices and staff them with people that knew what they were doing and stop changing them every hour.

The Chairman of NHEF, Wale Adeosun, recalled that the MacArthur Foundation started the Nigerian Higher Education Foundation in 2004, about 22 years ago. He said the goal then was to help Nigerian universities become self-sustaining, and they selected four universities to work with: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Bayero University, Kano; University of Port Harcourt; and the University of Ibadan.

“We at the NHEF then added the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and also the University of Lagos. In the 22 years that the NHEF has existed, this is the first time the NHEF has had any interaction and relationship with the Federal Ministry of Education.”