Uchechukwu Nnaike
The Chairman, Governing Board, National Universities Commission (NUC), and former Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has known as for a sustainable, harmonized relationship between the NUC and Nigeria’s skilled regulatory our bodies to curb what he described as double oversight.
He additionally urged the Nigerian college system to maneuver from an accreditation-centred tradition to a top quality assurance tradition, saying that accreditation needs to be the affirmation of high quality that already exists, not the occasion that creates momentary high quality.
This he stated requires universities to embed programme evaluate, curriculum forex, workers growth, infrastructure renewal, pupil suggestions, graduate outcomes {and professional} engagement into their regular governance processes.
Ogundipe said this lately, whereas delivering the 2026 convocation lecture of Osun State University, titled ‘Coping with Double Oversight: Harmonizing the NUC and Professional Bodies for a Sustainable University System’.
According to him, for many years, the NUC and Nigeria’s skilled regulatory our bodies coexisted in an uneasy peace. “Universities understood that they needed both accreditations and managed the process as best they could. But as Nigeria’s university system expanded particularly from the 1990s onward, with the proliferation of state and private universities, the structural tensions between the two systems became increasingly visible and increasingly costly.”
He argued that Nigeria doesn’t want much less regulation of college training, however wants higher regulation. “Quality assurance must remain non-negotiable, but it becomes counterproductive when multiple regulators exercise overlapping mandates, impose inconsistent requirements, duplicate processes, and leave universities and students to bear the consequences.”
He stated that the NUC {and professional} regulatory our bodies have continued to conflict in areas like: curriculum possession and content material, accreditation timelines and prices, minimal requirements vs. skilled requirements, institutional capability {and professional} council resistance to new universities, the post-NYSC skilled registration drawback, knowledge asymmetry and data gaps.
According to him, the unresolved pressure impacts institutional planning, educational workers who’re burdened with perpetual accreditation preparation, college students, public belief within the college system, and nationwide growth.
“Nigeria’s development agenda whether articulated through ERGP, the Economic Sustainability Plan, or the more recent Renewed Hope Agenda depends critically on the supply of welltrained professionals: doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, nurses, architects, accountants. A regulatory system that impedes the efficient production of such professionals, that creates unnecessary attrition between university graduation and professional registration, is a drag on national development. It is a self-inflicted wound on a country that can afford neither the wound nor the delay in healing it,” Ogundipe stated.
He due to this fact harassed that the regulatory calendar should change into a part of institutional planning, including that the governing council, senate and administration ought to know, programme by programme, the relevant NUC {and professional} necessities, the standing of every accreditation, the following anticipated evaluate, excellent suggestions, and the monetary implications. “Accreditation should therefore feature in the annual operating plan and institutional risk register.”
He added that Nigeria wants a stronger student-protection precept, saying that no pupil ought to uncover at commencement {that a} programme has a regulatory drawback that the establishment or regulator knew, or ought moderately to have recognized, years earlier.
He insisted that accreditation standing needs to be clear at admission and repeatedly up to date. “Where a programme is under an approved developmental or interim arrangement, students should receive clear information about the implications for professional registration.”
The chairman additional really helpful that skilled accreditation needs to be developmental, moderately than merely punitive. He stated that the place deficiencies are remediable and don’t pose a direct menace to public security, the regulatory response ought to distinguish between critical high quality failures and capability gaps that may be corrected inside an agreed enchancment plan. “This is particularly important for young universities and programmes serving regions where access to professional education remains limited.”
He suggested universities to simply accept accountability, saying that harmonisation can’t change into a handy argument for reducing requirements. “University leadership must ensure that curricula are current, academic staff are properly qualified, laboratories and clinical facilities are fit for purpose, students receive adequate practical exposure, and recommendations from regulatory visits are implemented. A culture of quality begins within the institution,” Ogundipe stated.
He additional said that establishing a sustainable, harmonized relationship between the NUC and Nigeria’s skilled our bodies requires: legislative and coverage clarification of jurisdictional boundaries; a everlasting nationwide consultative framework; harmonised accreditation protocols; student-protective developmental accreditation; and a shared nationwide regulatory info platform.
He lauded the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa’s latest reform initiatives, notably the institution of a Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria, saying that his deal with harmonising accreditation protocols and devices, in addition to securing the lively participation {of professional} our bodies, is a essential step ahead. “Achieving this buy-in, however, requires careful negotiation and sustained engagement.”
Ogundipe harassed that the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVC) has an necessary position to play in advocating, with a unified voice, for the outlined administrative reforms.
He stated particular person universities typically negotiate individually with regulatory our bodies, resulting in inconsistent outcomes and missed alternatives for system-wide reform. He stated {that a} coordinated advocacy technique, developed by the CVC, in partnership with the Association of Private Universities in Nigeria and the Committee of Pro-Chancellors, would carry higher weight than any particular person establishment can muster.
Ogundipe additionally suggested the graduands and people coming into the professions drugs, engineering, legislation, pharmacy, the constructed atmosphere, the sciences, to grasp the regulatory framework of their occupation. “Know what professional registration requires of you. Know your professional body. Engage with it not as a bureaucratic obstacle, but as the institution that defines the standards of your calling and protects the public you are sworn to serve.”
“Do not wait for the system to come to you. Go to the system. Register. Participate. And in time, lead. The professional bodies of Nigeria, like all human institutions, are shaped by the people who engage with them. The generation that reforms the double oversight problem may well be sitting in this hall today,” he stated.
