The Nation Newspaper

Tag: National Universities Commission (NUC)

  • Examination Malpractice: Committee lauds WAEC, ministries over sanctions

    Examination Malpractice: Committee lauds WAEC, ministries over sanctions

    The National Examination Committee ( NEC ) on Thursday in Lagos lauded West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for networking with state ministries of education nationwide in to stem examination malpractice.

    The committee after its 64th meeting, particularly commended the collaborative efforts to identify and carry out disciplinary actions against perpetrators of examination malpractice.

    NEC said such disciplinary actions were also carried out on supervisors and invigilators who aided and abetted examination malpractice during the 2017 West African Senior School Certificate Examination ( WASSCE ) for School Candidates.

    “The council noted the recurring cases of returned certificates, where candidates willingly made confessional statements to the effect that they were impersonated,’’ it said its communique made available to our souce.

    The communique by Mr Damianus Ojijeogu, Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, said the committee received a report on irregularity, special and clemency cases arising from the conduct of the 2016 WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2016.

    It that in the course of considering the various reported cases of malpractice, the committee, after diligent deliberations, approved appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice.

    This, it said, will be carried out as prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the council’s examinations.

    “ It approved that the entire results of candidates involved in proven cases, which attract Cancellation of Entire Results (CER) be cancelled, while subject results of those involved in proven cases, which attracts Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR) be similarly cancelled.

    “Some candidates will also suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the council’s examinations for a certain number of years, while some schools will have WAEC recognition withdrawn or de-recognised for a specified number of years.

    “The decisions of the committee will be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and schools duly informed by the council.

    “However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the committee will be released,’’ the communique said.

    “Council agreed that apart from the National Universities Commission ( NUC ), details of such candidates such as examination numbers, certificate numbers and years of examination, should be made available to the National Board for Technical Education ( NBTE ).

    “It should also be made available to the National Commission for Colleges of Education ( NCCE ) and posted on the council’s corporate website as well as published in national dailies twice a year.

    “The committee, therefore, commended WAEC for liaising with the Ministries of Education in the states of the federation to identify and carry out disciplinary actions against such Supervisors and Invigilators for their roles in such shameful acts.’’

    On the issue of appointment and deployment of supervisors during the conduct of the WASSCE, the committee advised that WAEC should continue with the practice of swapping supervisors during its examinations.

    It added that such swapping should be monitored to ensure that supervisors do not connive with school authorities and staff of WAEC to compromise the process.

    The committee is the highest decision-making organ of WAEC on examination-related matters in Nigeria.

    It meets twice a year to consider matters relating to the conduct of the WASSCE for both the school and private candidates.

    NAN

  • Senate endorse Health Sciences varsity, Otukpo

    Senate endorse Health Sciences varsity, Otukpo

    A bill which sought the establishment of the Federal University of Health Sciences Otukpo ( FUHSO ), Benue state, has received the endorsement of the Senate and stakeholders in the education and health sectors of the country.

    The Federal Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission ( NUC ), Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria ( MDCAN ), Nigeria Medical Association ( NMA ), National Association of Resident Doctors ( NARD ) and League of Idoma Professors ( LIP ) were unanimous in their submissions at the Senate Public hearing that the university is desirable.

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki who described t the bill as timely noted that the establishment of the university would help mitigate the crisis in the health sector.

    Saraki stressed that the university would open the window for admission and training of medical  doctors, nurses , pharmacists and  medical  laboratory scientists in Nigeria adding “the university when established would address the issues  of medical tourism and its associated capital flights”.

    Saraki who was represented the Chief Whip, Senator Sola Adeyeye lamented that Nigeria loses humongous sum of money about N3billion annually on account of citizens seeking medical attentions abroad.

    Sponsor of the bill and former Senate President, Senator David Mark, listed the educational, economic and social importance of establishing the Health University to include medical education, access to health care facilities and employment opportunities.

    Senator Mark urged his colleagues to support and pass the bill for the benefit of humanity .

    Education Minister Mallam Adamu Adamu added that the establishment of the Health University would help address the imbalance in health education just as it will solve the medical needs of citizens.

    Speaking through the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Sunday Echono, the minister assured that the  executive arm of government will do the needful as soon as the legislative processes are completed .

    The NUC executive Secretary  Professor Adamu Rasheed who spoke through Prof Ibrahim Yakassai said the university would be  an added value to the pursuit of medical Education in Nigeria .

    All the Speakers including Professor Innocent Ujah of Nigeria Institute for Medical Research ( NIMR ) , Professor Francis Uba of College of Medical Sciences, Professor Owoicho Akpa, of League of IDOMA Professors, former Interior minister Comrade  Abah Moro,  and Dr. Umar Adamu  of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA)  among others were of the consensus that the university be established forthwith to address medical challenges in Nigeria.

  • NiMet to establish meteorological infrastructure in universities

    NiMet to establish meteorological infrastructure in universities

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet ), says it is set to establish meteorological infrastructure in 34 universities in Nigeria.

    The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Prof. Sani Mashi said this in a statement issued by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, the General Manager, Public Relations Unit, NiMet on Thursday in Abuja.

    Mashi said the establishment of meteorological infrastructure was in furtherance of its target to increase the network of meteorological stations and boost its data collection.

    The director-general spoke when he visited the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission ( NUC ), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.

    Mashi said that NiMet had embarked on an aggressive programme to massively expand the network of meteorological stations in the country to about 1000 by December.

    According to him, one of the strategies the agency will employ to achieve this is to partner with Nigerian universities.

    “Part of the things we said we would do is to see how we can extend our services to the Nigerian universities.

    “NiMet has carried out an independent assessment of the universities and looked at the existing meteorological stations that these universities maintain.

    “One of the things that are missing is the linkage between the universities and the agency.

    “NiMet has the expertise and knows what should be in place, while the universities have the capacity to teach, but may not have the technical competence to know the best equipment for the best results.
    “We feel that what we need to do, we need to come up with a way to help the universities get their infrastructure upgraded,’’ he said.

    Mashi said the partnership with the universities was a win-win situation, explaining that once the meteorological stations were upgraded, they would start generating data.

    “This partnership according to him will expand the agency’s network of stations, because the universities’ infrastructure has been upgraded.’’

    The NUC executive secretary Rasheed, assured NiMet that the commission would fully support the initiative and promised to talk to the Vice Chancellors about it.

    He commended NiMet for the initiative and expressed the hope that universities in the country would be covered by 2018 as well as Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

    NAN

  • NUC: Only 30 per cent UTME candidates will be admitted this year

    NUC: Only 30 per cent UTME candidates will be admitted this year

    As a result of the limited spaces in tertiary institutions, only 30 per cent out of the 1.7 million candidates who wrote the unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) will be admitted this year, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, has said.

    Prof. Rasheed said this at a one day public hearing on the regulatory conflict between JAMB and universities in offering admission in Nigeria.

    The hearing was organized by Senate committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund on Tuesday.

    The NUC boss said the limited spaces in tertiary institutions have made admission crisis inevitable in Nigeria.

    According to him, the only way to avert admission crisis in the country is to either expand access or create more universities to accommodate students.

    “The crisis of admission in this country inevitable. Unless we expand spaces we shall continue to have admission crisis in this country.

    “Every exam has its own problem. We believe JAMB exam is credible and all of us operating in the system respect the results of JAMB exam,” he said.

    JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede said there was no conflict between JAMB and universities.

    Prof. Oloyede said most of the candidates who sit for its examination annually do not have the required qualification to gain admission.

    He said: “It is not true that we have 1.7 million candidates that are ready to go into the Nigerian university system. Of the 1.7 million that took the exam I can say conveniently that not more than 30 per cent of them are not prepared for admission, they are just trying. They do not have the five O level required to go into the university.

    “Secondly, let me also let us realize that 10 per cent of the 1.7 million that we see or 1.9 as the case may be they are not what can be categorized as belong to the net enrolment ratio for entering tertiary education. They belong to the gross enrolment ratio.

    “80 per cent of candidates sitting at the point of sitting do not have the O level at all. They are awaiting results. So when we are building our theories and analysis, we need to be very cautious.

    “If you score 400 over 400 if you do not have the five O level you cannot come into the university. The basic qualification is the five O level.”

     

     

  • LASU to admit 3,500 candidates in 2017/18 session

    LASU to admit 3,500 candidates in 2017/18 session

    The Lagos State University ( LASU ) will admit 3,500 students for the 2017/2018 academic session.

    The university’s Head of Centre for Information, Press and Public Relations, Mr Adekoya Martins, made this known in a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday.

    Martins said that 36,500 candidates applied for admission in LASU for the academic session.

    He described as false, purported information on some social media platforms that LASU was set to admit 5,500 out of 36,500 candidates.

    “The university management wishes to state unequivocally that such information is false, baseless and unfounded.

    “Consequently, members of the university community and the general public are advised to disregard such information,” he said.

    In a bid to ensure transparency and merit-driven admission process, Lagos state university recently launched an application to automate subsequent admissions in line with a directive from the National Universities Commission ( NUC ).

    The application will cut out undue interference from individuals in the admission process.

    NAN

  • FUD gets NUC’s approval to run MBBS, other programs

    FUD gets NUC’s approval to run MBBS, other programs

    The Federal University, Dutse ( FUD ) says it has received the approval of the National Universities Commission ( NUC ) to offer five academic programmes.

    The approval takes effect from the 2017 /2018 academic session.

    The university’s Registrar, Malam Bukar Usman, said in a statement on Sunday in Dutse that the approved programmes were in the College of Medical and Health Sciences.

    Usman said the programmes were Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Medicine, (MBBS); Bachelor of Science (B.Sc. Biology); Bachelor of Science, (B.Sc. Human Anatomy); Bachelor of Science, (B.Sc. Human Physiology) and Bachelor of Science, (B.Sc. Biochemistry).

    The registrar said that the NUC approval followed the Commission’s May 2017 visitation panel which undertook a resource verification assessment of human and material resources available for the establishment of the programmes.

    Usman explained that the approval did not cover part-time programmes as all programmes must bear only the approved titles and nomenclatures, adding any change would require the re-approval of the Commission.

    With the latest development, the university now has NUC mandate to admit students into the listed programmes which were earlier suspended.

    Usman further: “Similarly, The Federal University, Dutse ( FUD ) has also secured full accreditation for six out of the eight academic programmes it submitted in the May/June accreditation exercise by the NUC.”

    According to him, English, Biology, Physics, Political Science, Zoology, Botany and Chemistry secured full accreditation.

    Biotechnology and Computer Science secured interim accreditation while Computer Science was denied accreditation, the registrar said.

    NAN

  • NUC approves TECH-U academic programmes

    NUC approves TECH-U academic programmes

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved 14 programmes for the commencement of academic activities of the Technical University (Tech-U), Ibadan.

    In a release by the media office of the University, the approved courses are to be run in the seven departments and two faculties the newly established institution.

    The two faculties are Faculties of Natural Sciences and Engineering and Technology.

    The approved courses with full accreditation are: Microbiology, Industrial Chemistry, Physics with Electronics, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Cyber Security, Mathematics, and Statistics.

    Others include Agricultural Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering.

    The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Ayobami Salami, expressed delight with the approval.

    He assured the University would operate in a way that ensures that higher education live up to its highest potential to ennoble the human spirit and advance human society.

    “As a technical university, we have an abiding obligation to efficiently and responsibly use theoretical and practical knowledge of science, technology, and engineering in engaging societal problems while maintaining a culture of entrepreneurship anchored on quality programmes that are responsive and financially suitable and sustainable.

    “It is in that connection that we provide entrepreneurial and vocational trainings to all students,” he explained.

    Salami said all students will undergo trainings in two vocational programmes for certification before graduation.

    Students will also be required to sign in for French Language and undergo immersion as a prerequisite for graduation.

    Additionally, they are to learn one other Nigerian language apart from their mother tongue.

     

  • NUC warn VCs against activities of fraudsters

    NUC warn VCs against activities of fraudsters

    The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, on Thursday warned Vice-chancellors of Nigeria Universities to avoid making any payment into any account not recognized by the Federal Government.

    The NUC boss said some persons were using the name of the commission to defraud some vice chancellors for the accreditation of programmes in their universities.

    He gave the warning at a workshop organized for Directors of Academic Planning of Nigerian Universities, at the headquarters of the commission yesterday in Abuja.

    Prof. Rasheed said a vice chancellor in one of Nigeria’s university recently made payment of N7 million into the account of fraudsters using the name of the commission.

    He added that the NUC would not request for payment into any personal account except the one operated by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the TSA-Remita account.

    “Any form of request from anybody purported to be from NUC asking you to make any payment in cash or through transfer to anybody for any function of NUC, it is 419 don’t do it. If it is not a remita-CBN account and ask exactly for what.

    “It baffles me how many universities get swindled. Anytime a vice chancellor calls me to say somebody called him from NUC and say somebody asked him to make payment here and there, I say why don’t you ask director of academic planning?

    “NUC does not compel any university in Nigeria, public or private, to make any payment for any purpose in any account order than the CBN, TSA remita account.

    “A vice chancellor recently called and say he paid 7 million into a consultant account. I said you are the biggest fool. Is it CBN account? Is it TSA Remita account?

    The executive secretary also said the commission would soon embark on a comprehensive review of curricula programmes in universities.

    “The NUC this year will start a comprehensive review of curricula of our programmes. You are all aware of the few changes we have brought in the Minimum Academic standards into new documents to be called Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS).

    “The commission has increased the numbers of academic disciplines in Nigeria universities through the splitting of medicine or medical discipline into basic medical sciences and clinical sciences,” he added.

     

  • Edo University, Iyamho not for the poor – VC

    Edo University, Iyamho not for the poor – VC

    The Management of the state-owned Edo University, Iyamho,(EUI) says the institution was established to essentially cater for academically-endowed students and the wealthy in the society.

    The Vice Chancellor(VC) of the institution, Prof. Emmanuel Aluyor, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Monday, in Iyamho-Uzairue, in the Estako-West local government area of Edo.

    He said: “the idea behind the establishment of Edo University by the founding fathers is neither to replace nor compete with the existing Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.

    “But rather, to complement it in terms of providing world-class education with the best of infrastructure to academically-gifted students and the rich, who can afford the fees.

    “People have questioned why former Gov. Adams Oshiomhole did not upgrade AAU, than establishing a new university altogether.

    “Apart from its being capital-intensive to either renovate or bring in the needed infrastructure, the idea was to provide a different brand of education to the people.

    “We are offering world-class infrastructure and state-of-the art facilities at EUI; that is why our fees are high.
    According to him, the fees range from between N400, 000 and N450, 000 a session.

    “And that depends from which perspective you are looking at it.

    “If it is from the perspective of a private university, our fees are very low indeed, because there is no private university that charges anything lower than what we offer.

    “And only one or two public universities charge the same fees as us and that also depends on the quality of infrastructure and programmes on offer.

    “The idea of the founding fathers is for anyone to have an ambiance of everything he desires abroad in any university environment here,’’ Aluyor said.

    According to him, the university authority has also assembled first class academic and non-academic staff to complement the infrastructure and facilities, to ensure that the students are well groomed in character and in learning.

    The VC added that management had introduced an entrepreneurship programme for its students to prepare them to “become employers of labour rather than those seeking for labour.

    “We have, therefore, set up facilities for entrepreneurship training for all our students, irrespective of their course of study, to make them to become independent on graduation.

    “We are proposing a grant of between N5 million and N10 million for any graduating student with the best entrepreneurship proposal.

    “The University Council is still trying to fine-tune the modalities,’’ he said.

    Aluyor disclosed that management abhors indiscipline among staff and students, hence the withdrawal of some pioneer undergraduates and erring staff.

    “I am proud to mention that we have a dress code among our students, while all our lectures are multi-media assisted.

    “We may not be proud of this information that in our first year, we had less than 80 students admitted. But I can tell you that we had cause to expel four of them.

    “We may be young; but it does not mean we will accept every Dick and Harry as students.

    “I think what we did was showing capacity to instill discipline.

    “We have also had cause to sanction three members of staff. We are not happy to have sent them into the unemployment market.

    “But we are saying that if you can not measure up with the standard we have set down, you certainly can’t be part of the vision of the founding fathers of this university,’’ he said.

    The VC disclosed that at its inception in 2016, the National Universities Commission (NUC) only approved two faculties, namely the Arts and Social Sciences and the Sciences, respectively, to offer courses such as English, Mass Communication, Biochemistry, Mathematics, Microbiology and Computer science.

    He said that the NUC later approved for the university, three additional faculties namely Law, College of Medicine and Engineering, but added that “we will only admit students into the Law department this new session.’’

    Edo University, Iyamho, is a state government-owned tertiary institution founded in 2016. It is located in Iyamho, a town in Etsako-West local government area of Edo State.

    On March 23, 2016, the university was approved by the NUC as Nigeria’s 41st state university. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes.

    On March 27, 2014, the Edo State House of Assembly passed a bill for the establishment of a University of Science and Technology at Uzairue.

    The University was, however, changed to Edo University and its location to Iyamho.

  • FG to establish National Commission for Secondary Education

    FG to establish National Commission for Secondary Education

    The Federal Government Monday revealed that it plans to establish a National Commission for Secondary Education to regulate secondary education in the country.

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu disclosed this in Abuja on Monday when he received students of Nigeria Tulip International Colleges (NTIC) who won 48 awards for Nigeria in mathematics, geometry, robotics and various international academic competitions this year.

    Adamu said the plan to establish the commission was part of the ongoing reforms in the education sector by the federal government.

    He noted that while the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) regulate and intervene in tertiary education, there is no agency or commission to regulate secondary education as it is done with primary and junior secondary education through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

    The minister said: “This administration came on the mantra of change and reform and that is what we are going to do.

    “For secondary schools in particular, you know for a very long time, there had been a commission, just like there is Universal Basic Education Commission for primary and junior secondary schools, Tertiary Education Trust Fund for tertiary, this commission for secondary education is going to be revamped.”

    Adamu, who commended the students of the college for making Nigeria proud, added that the Tulip Colleges since coming into Nigeria about 20 years ago had been among the best from Secondary to the Tertiary.

    He expressed the readiness of the ministry of education to support the NTIC.

    According to him, emphasis in education should be on science subjects like engineering, technology, and Mathematical sciences.

    “I want to urge you to keep up what you have been doing. I assure you that the future of Nigeria rest in your hands,” he added.

    In his remarks, Principal of the college, Mr. Nwuazu Omeje, said the aim of the school is to groom the students to greatness through provision of quality education and good moral upbringing.

    According to him, the colleges do not just pay attention to education alone but also the character of the children, adding that one could not aspire to any reasonable position in the society without good character.

    The Principal disclosed that one unique thing that the colleges had done was provision of scholarship to the brilliant but indigent students.

    He said various mathematical competitions are organized in collaboration with the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, where the intelligent students from poor background who could not afford the school fees are offered scholarship to study in the colleges.

    According to him, the aim of the NTIC is to complement the effort of the federal government in providing quality education to citizens.

    “A good number of our students are on scholarship and we don’t discriminate. We go to every state, local government to advertise the competition and the successful ones are brought into the school,” he said.

    The NTIC has branches in Abuja, Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Yobe and Kaduna,