NUC will not allow 100% online degrees- Rasheed

The Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, has said the commission will not allow 100 per cent running of online degrees in Nigeria as it could spell doom for the university system.

Rasheed, who stated this during an annual retreat for Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities in Abuja, said NUC only approves open and distance learning education, ODL, in the country.

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The NUC boss cited widespread irregularities observed in online programmes, lack of university experience by students and other anomalies as reasons for NUC’s decision not to allow its full operation.

He said the commission was finalizing work on its protocol for open and distance learning to encourage a blended system, stating that when the document is ready, it would be open for criticism and inputs.  

While noting that the country’s university system was growing with 164 universities, 2 million enrolments and over 60 thousand academics, Rasheed stressed the need for periodic review of what it intends to attain to enhance common quality and forge more collaboration.

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“The University system is growing, with over 2 million enrollments and over 60,000 academics; we have a large growing expanding system, that we need to monitor effectively, in order to ensure high quality assurance,” he said.

Rasheed said NUC and the Nigerian University System have already embarked on an ambitious reform agenda for the system and were considering a review of the university curriculum.

He added that in the past one year, the commission has approved the full complement of ICT degree-awarding courses.

According to him, the approved courses include: software engineering, cyber security, among others while appeals have been made for the approval of data management and networking.