NUC suspends part-time programmes in universities

The National Universities Commission  on Monday announced the suspension of all Part-Time Programmes run by universities in the country. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, also announced the results of accreditation of courses run by the National Open University of Nigeria. Okojie said the suspension of the part- time programmes was to enable the regulatory body “streamline’’ them. He said the work of the universities’ regulatory body was becoming more difficult because of the “products of the system’’ and urged the institutions to cooperate with the NUC to evolve a more focused and credible system.

“For now all part time programmes have been suspended. We are going to streamline them.

“No university should have more than 20 per cent of their student population on part-time with excess capacity to teach. “All part time programmes must be located on campus. We do not want satellite campuses anymore,’’ he said.  The executive secretary said henceforth universities must score over 70 per cent in all areas of assessment, including the provision of library facilities before it would be accredited. “But if your library facilities are poor or sub standard, even if you score over 70 per cent, you will not be considered fit enough for accreditation,’’ he stated. Okojie said that out of the 31 programmes evaluated for the NOUN, 30 were accredited. He said that four programmes of the university were granted full accreditation, 26 others accredited on interim basis while one programme was denied accreditation.