Education Minister Alausa warns tertiary institutions against borrowing staff, equipment for accreditation

The Nigerian government is overhauling the tertiary institution accreditation system, warning universities against borrowing staff and equipment for exerci Read More: https://punchng.com/minister-warns-tertiary-institutions-against-borrowing-staff-equipment-for-accreditation/

The Federal Government has begun moves to overhaul the accreditation system for tertiary institutions, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, warning schools against presenting borrowed staff, equipment and facilities during accreditation exercises.Alausa spoke on Wednesday while inaugurating the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria. He said the government aims to transform accreditation from a periodic exercise into a continuous, digital and data-driven quality assurance process that verifies the actual capacity of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.He stressed that the current system must become more transparent, efficient, evidence-based and difficult to manipulate. Institutions, he said, should no longer be allowed to create a temporary impression of capacity just to satisfy an accreditation team.“An institution should not be able to prepare a temporary picture of itself simply for the purpose of an accreditation visit. Sadly, this is what persists in the majority of instances,” Alausa said.The minister said the government must stop the practice of temporarily moving or borrowing academic and non-academic staff, as well as equipment, laboratory facilities, workshop resources and library materials solely for accreditation purposes. Whatever an accreditation team sees must represent the institution’s actual and sustainable capacity, he insisted.Alausa announced plans to deploy technology—including geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification—to verify infrastructure, equipment and personnel. Critical equipment, he said, should have unique digital records linked to a specific institution and location.On staffing, he called for a comprehensive digital identity management and verification framework that would use national identity infrastructure, the National Identification Number, BVN and other secure systems to establish “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.” The system should also detect cases where individuals are improperly presented as full-time staff in multiple institutions.The minister noted that the current accreditation model, conducted every three to five years, needs to evolve into a continuous quality assurance process. A robust digital platform would allow regulators to maintain and periodically verify data on staffing, facilities and equipment before physical visits, which would then mainly validate already verified information.Alausa said the Ministry recently held a collaborative meeting with the National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education, National Commission for Colleges of Education and professional regulatory bodies. The government is awaiting advice from the Attorney-General of the Federation on next steps. He described the newly inaugurated committee as coming at a pivotal time to design a modern, technology-driven framework that aligns the various regulatory bodies.He charged the committee to examine existing accreditation processes and recommend practical modernisation measures so that accreditation becomes “credible, transparent, technology-driven, efficient and based on independently verifiable evidence.”Earlier, the Director of Polytechnic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Amy Igwe, said the initiative reflects the government’s commitment to protecting the interests of Nigerian students and eliminating the temporary borrowing of resources for accreditation exercises.