The federal government has today, Tuesday, inaugurated a committee that will investigate the activities of degree awarding private universities in Nigeria.
During the inauguration of the inter-ministerial committee, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman charged the committee to investigate the institutions that were established in the last 15 years.
He said, the committee should assess those private institutions and ascertain whether they have the required facilities to operate.
Prof. Mamman also urged them to ascertain if there is an adequate management structure in place and sufficient funding for the programmes run in those institutions, among other criteria.
According to him, the inter-ministerial committee is mandated to uncover examine illegal universities, expose their activities, and investigate allegations of degree certificate racketeering within both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria.
“Review the role of any MDA or its officials (including identifying such officials) in the facilitation of the recognition and procurement of the fake certificate in question;
“Review existing policies and procedures related to accreditation and certification to identify weaknesses contributing to the issue; examine the rules, procedures, and processes for recognition and accreditation of foreign universities and programmes by the Federal Ministry of Education.
“Establish if unapproved foreign institutions (Degree Mills) exist or not in Nigeria in whatever form with their identities and locations if any;
“Make appropriate recommendations for review of any rules, procedures, and processes to prevent re-occurrence and sanctions for identified erring officials;
“Make other recommendations that will strengthen the system of recognitions, accreditations, and quality assurance of degrees in Nigeria.
“Examine the extant rules, procedures, and processes for granting provisional licences to new universities by the National Universities Commission.
“Examine the procedures and processes for periodic accreditation of programmes in the universities by the NUC and examine their effectiveness in quality assurance of the programmes;
“Without prejudice to the periodic accreditation exercise of the NUC, examine whether or not Private Universities established in the last 15 years have in the place prescribed facilities, appropriate management structure, adequate funding of programmes, requisite staff (nature of staff-full time, contract, adjunct, visiting, other types).”
Peoplesmind
