The Federal Government has begun moves to overhaul the accreditation system for tertiary institutions, with the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, warning universities, polytechnics and colleges of education against presenting borrowed staff, equipment and facilities during accreditation exercises.
Alausa said the government was working to transform accreditation from a periodic exercise into a continuous, digital and data-driven quality assurance system capable of verifying the actual capacity of tertiary institutions.
The minister spoke on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
He said the existing system must become more transparent, efficient and evidence-based while making it increasingly difficult for institutions to manipulate accreditation exercises.
‘Institutions Must Show Their Real Capacity’
Alausa said institutions should no longer be allowed to create a temporary impression of their capacity simply to satisfy an accreditation team.
He noted that academic and non-academic staff were sometimes temporarily moved or presented during accreditation exercises before being returned to other institutions.
The minister said similar practices involving equipment and other facilities must also be addressed.
According to him, institutions have been known to temporarily borrow or present laboratory equipment, workshop resources, library materials and other infrastructure solely for accreditation purposes.
He stressed that everything presented to an accreditation team must reflect the institution’s actual and sustainable capacity.
FG to Use Digital Technology for Verification
Alausa said the government would deploy technology to strengthen the verification of institutional infrastructure, equipment and personnel.
The proposed system would incorporate tools such as geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification technologies.
He said critical equipment presented for accreditation should be digitally identifiable and linked to a specific institution and physical location.
Such records, he explained, could contain information on the equipment’s location, status and other relevant details.
New System to Verify Academic Staff
The minister also called for a comprehensive digital identity and staff verification framework to establish the identity, presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented by tertiary institutions.
He proposed leveraging national identity infrastructure and interoperable government databases, subject to existing data protection laws.
Alausa said collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) could allow the use of the National Identification Number, alongside BVN infrastructure and other secure technologies, to establish the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.”
The system, he added, should be capable of identifying cases where an individual is improperly presented as full-time staff by multiple institutions.
FG Wants Accreditation to Become Continuous
Alausa said the reforms were necessary because the current accreditation model largely operates as a periodic exercise conducted every three to five years.
He said the long-term objective was to move from accreditation being treated as an event to becoming a continuous quality assurance process.
Under the proposed approach, institutions would be expected to maintain required standards throughout the year rather than make special preparations whenever accreditation teams were scheduled to visit.
The minister said a digital accreditation platform could allow regulators to continuously maintain and periodically verify information on institutional staffing, facilities, laboratories, workshops and equipment.
He added that physical accreditation visits would remain important but would increasingly serve to validate already verified data rather than begin the verification process from scratch.
Single Platform Proposed for Tertiary Regulators
The minister said the approach would enable the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to build reliable institutional histories rather than depend primarily on information obtained during periodic accreditation exercises.
He disclosed that the Ministry of Education had recently held a collaborative meeting involving the three major tertiary education regulatory bodies and professional regulatory organisations.
According to him, the government is awaiting advice from the Attorney-General of the Federation on the next steps.
Alausa proposed the creation of a digital platform that would serve as a “single source of truth” for verified institutional data, saying it could help reduce regulatory conflicts and improve coordination among relevant agencies.
He noted that some of the existing accreditation toolkits were developed decades ago and had contributed to conflicts within the regulatory system.
Committee Charged With Modernising Accreditation
The minister said the newly inaugurated committee was constituted at a critical period to develop a framework capable of aligning accreditation, regulatory and professional bodies.
He charged members to examine the accreditation processes of the NUC, NBTE and NCCE and develop practical recommendations for their modernisation.
According to Alausa, the ultimate goal is to establish an accreditation system that is credible, transparent, technology-driven, efficient and based on independently verifiable evidence.
Ministry Seeks Protection of Students’ Interests
Earlier, the Director of Polytechnic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Amy Igwe, said the committee was expected to contribute to building a more robust, transparent and credible accreditation system.
Igwe said the initiative reflected the government’s commitment to improving the education sector and protecting the interests of Nigerian students.
She acknowledged that some institutions had previously been known to temporarily move or borrow resources and staff for accreditation exercises, expressing hope that the proposed reforms would help eliminate such practices.
Alausa maintained that the central principle of the reform was simple: what an institution presents for accreditation must be what actually exists and is sustainably available to its students.
“Technology should enable us to move from declarations to verification and from assumptions to evidence,” he said.
He added that the objective was not to deploy technology for its own sake, but to protect the integrity of Nigeria’s tertiary education system and the interests of students.
