ACCREDITATION PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority or credibility is presented. In the Nigerian University System (NUS), academic programmes are regulated by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and professional bodies. The NUC conducts accreditation and re-accreditation exercises for all programmes and universities using senior academic staff of Nigerian universities. There are presently 147 universities in Nigeria, 86 of which are public universities and 61 private universities. Accreditation exercises are carried out to promote good quality post-secondary training for the production of high quality and skilled graduates, ensure parity of standards in all programmes offered in the universities and provide counsel to the managers of universities as necessary. Approvals are usually given by NUC before the establishment of new universities and programmes. Accreditation processes are for fresh programmes that are matured for accreditation while re-accreditation is for programmes that earn full, interim or denied accreditation status. While acknowledging that accreditation and recognition of universities in Nigeria have streamlined the operations in the NUS, there are concerns identified in the process including delays in accreditation and updating of the NUC benchmark minimum academic standards (BMAS), payment for accreditation visits, non-promotion of creativity in curriculum development, multiple accreditations and insincerity in staffing. This paper highlights these lapses and posits that the accreditation bodies should be harmonized and their visitations timely and budgeted for by the government. The paper recommends that the NUC BMAS should be updated every five years and advocates the grouping of universities that are under 10 years in order to give room for growth index.