The 70 percent control over the academic programmes will stifle higher education

Uuniversity is nothing without an intellectual tradition. And there is no better way to achieve that than a robust academic programme. The tertiary level of education in Nigerian has been shown up by periodic rankings of higher institutions in the world and Nigeria.

Although some universities have shown flashes, we have witnessed neither a consistency nor high perch commensurate with the size and promise of our population and diversity. Hence, the action by the country’s university under the aegis of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to streamline and modernise the curriculum is an opportunity.

The point, according to the NUC, is to set a minimum standard and modernise the courses of study for a twenty first century citizen. The NUC thus moved from what was termed the Bench Mark Minimum Academic Standard (BMAS) to Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).

CCMAS is supposed to be more comprehensive and take cognisance of a global world with its dynamic of evolving technologies as well as diversities. It is, therefore, a system that should be tied to the future and a new world in flux. The CCMAS comprises 17 disciplines and 238 academic programmes.

But there are big setbacks. In setting the minimum standard, NUC has control of 70 percent of content, and gives the university senates a miserly 30 percent. This has raised remonstrations among some senates and intellectuals in the country. And for good reasons.

The academic disciplines covered include, Administration and Management; Agriculture; Allied Health Sciences; Architecture; Arts; Basic Medical Sciences; Computing; Communication and Media Studies; Education; Engineering and Technology; Environmental Sciences; Law; Medicine and Dentistry; Pharmaceutical Science; Sciences; Social Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine.

One of the drawbacks is the sense that critical stakeholders did not take part in the deliberations that produced the new document. Academic programming is supposed to be collaborative, and from what the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has observed, the decision seemed to be an imposition.

The 70 percent control by the NUC takes away the ability of the universities to innovate and create their own characters. It is an obsession with uniformity. Academics is nothing if not creative, and when the centre gives institutions only a narrow room to assert their individuality, it implies a system only a little better than rote.

Not only that, some of the new courses either show a watering down or lack of touch with the real world. For instance, the University of Ibadan queries that “there are no Chemistry courses for students of B. Sc. Physics. Apart from Departmental and General Studies (GES/GST) courses, the 70% CCMAS has left out all other Faculty or University courses like Engineering Mathematics for Engineering students, Statistics for Science students, Philosophy and Sociology of Education courses for Education students, etc. Almost all departments reported one major deficiency or the other in the CCMAS.

“Contrary to the stated intentions, the current 70% CCMAS documents have left out essential courses in university programmes which would render Nigerian graduates globally uncompetitive! There are omissions of core and mandatorily required contents of courses in the old BMAS from those of the 70% CCMAS; raising serious questions about the competence of the so-called experts who executed the “contracts”.

In the field of mass communications, it seeks specialisation by breaking it into many parts. But that may be good for a post-graduate programme, not a first degree that should exhibit a breadth of knowledge.

Again, if 30 percent is all the “locals” have, how could they pursue the idea of institutional flexibility and specialisation? How much room would a University of Sokoto have to differentiate itself from Delta State University, with all the beauties of their immediate cultures and environments.

We call on the CCMAS to be reexamined.

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