The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, yesterday set up a committee to look into the activities of private universities established in the last 15 years.
The Minister said this will show if the private institutions under investigation have in the place prescribed facilities, adequate management structure, and adequate funding of programmes among others.
He also noted that the inter-ministerial committee set up to look into the activities of illegal universities will also examine, “the veracity of the allegations of degree certificate racketeering within both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria.”
The Minister said this during the inauguration of the inter-ministerial committee on degree mills in the country.
While listing the functions of the Committee, the minister said, “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 as well as sanctions for identified erring officials.
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“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 of provisional licenses 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).”
At least no fewer than 10,900 Nigerian students studying in Beninois and Togolese universities are expected to be affected by the Nigerian government ban according to statistics provided by the National Association of Nigerian Students in Benin Republic and Togo.
The National Universities Commission, the regulatory body of universities in Nigeria revealed that no fewer than 18 out of the 58 universities whose operations have been suspended in Nigeria are foreign-owned.
