FG tightens accreditation, admission rules, pays lecturers tools allowances

The Federal Government has begun an overhaul of the accreditation system for tertiary institutions in the country, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, warning institutions against presenting borrowed staff, equipment, and facilities during accreditation exercises.

The minister also warned that officials of tertiary institutions who fail to comply with admission and accreditation requirements risk losing their jobs, while private institutions that violate regulatory standards could lose their operating licences.

The development comes as the Federal Government announced the full payment of the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance to academic staff in federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education for January to August 2026.

The minister spoke on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.

Alausa said the government was seeking to transform accreditation from a periodic exercise into a continuous, digital and data-driven quality assurance system capable of verifying the actual capacity of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

According to him, institutions should no longer be allowed to create a temporary impression of their capacity merely to satisfy an accreditation team.

“An institution should not be able to prepare a temporary picture of itself simply for an accreditation visit. Sadly, this is what persists in the majority of instances,” Alausa said.

He said the government must address situations where academic and non-academic personnel were temporarily moved or presented for accreditation and subsequently returned to other institutions.

“We must similarly address the temporary movement, borrowing or presentation of equipment, laboratory facilities, workshop resources, library materials and other infrastructure solely for accreditation purposes,” he said.

Alausa stressed that whatever an accreditation team sees and verifies must represent the “actual and sustainable capacity” of an institution.

He said the existing system must be strengthened to make it “more transparent, efficient, evidence-based and difficult to manipulate,” stressing that accreditation should provide an accurate picture of an institution’s capacity to deliver quality education.

He said the government would deploy technology to strengthen verification of infrastructure, equipment and personnel, including geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification technologies.

“Critical equipment presented for accreditation should be capable of being digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location.

“Where appropriate, such equipment should have a unique digital record showing its location, status and other relevant information,” the minister said.

On staffing, Alausa called for a comprehensive digital identity management and staff verification framework that would allow regulators to establish the identity, presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented by tertiary institutions.

He said the system should leverage national identity infrastructure and interoperable government databases, subject to data protection laws.

The minister also proposed collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission to use the National Identification Number, alongside BVN infrastructure and other secure technologies, to establish the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.”

He added that the system should be able to detect situations where an individual was improperly presented as full-time personnel in multiple institutions.

Alausa said the reforms were necessary because the current accreditation model largely operates as a periodic exercise conducted every three to five years.

“A longer-term objective should be to move from accreditation as an event to accreditation as a continuous quality assurance process,” he said.

He argued that institutions should maintain prescribed standards throughout the year rather than make special preparations only when accreditation teams were expected.

According to him, a robust digital accreditation platform would allow regulators to continuously maintain and periodically verify information on institutional staffing, facilities, laboratories, workshops and equipment before physical accreditation visits.

“The physical visit will remain important, but it should increasingly serve to validate verified data rather than begin the verification process from scratch,” he said.

The minister said the approach would also enable the National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education and National Commission for Colleges of Education to build reliable institutional histories rather than rely primarily on snapshots obtained during accreditation exercises.

Alausa further disclosed that the ministry had recently held a collaborative meeting involving the three major tertiary education regulatory bodies and professional regulatory bodies, adding that the government was awaiting advice from the Attorney-General of the Federation on the next steps.

He said a digital platform serving as a “single source of truth” for verified institutional data could help resolve regulatory conflicts and improve coordination among the various bodies.

“The accreditation toolkits that we have been using were developed decades ago. We see conflicts arising,” he said.

The minister said the newly inaugurated committee had been constituted at a “pivotal time” to design a framework capable of aligning accreditation, regulatory and professional bodies.

“One way to do that will be to have a platform where everyone can go and see proof of data. It becomes standardised, and it will be easy and efficient,” he said.

Alausa maintained that the guiding principle of the reform was that what an institution presented for accreditation must be what actually existed and was sustainably available to its students.

“Technology should enable us to move from declarations to verification and from assumptions to evidence.

“This is not technology for its own sake. It is technology developed to protect the integrity of Nigeria’s tertiary education system and the interests of our students,” he said.

He charged the committee to examine the accreditation processes of the NUC, NBTE and NCCE and develop practical recommendations for their modernisation.

He said the ultimate objective was to establish accreditation processes that are “credible, transparent, technology-driven, efficient and based on independently verifiable evidence.”

Illegal admissions

Speaking on illegal admissions, Alausa said the Federal Government would tighten regulation of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

He said estimates of students admitted outside approved regulatory frameworks could run into hundreds of thousands.

“Estimates of students illegally admitted to universities are in the hundreds of thousands,” Alausa said.

He said the problem was compounded by institutions admitting students far beyond their approved carrying capacities, thereby putting pressure on lecturers, infrastructure and other resources required for effective training.

Alausa said it was worrisome that an institution could have approval to admit 100 students but subsequently admit about 1,000 students.

The minister said the consequence of such practices was the production of poorly trained graduates who struggle to meet the needs of employers.

“It’s saddening. An employer will say, ‘I want to employ 20 lawyers.’ He gets 500 applicants but can’t even get five qualified applicants. It’s a shame,” he said.

The minister said the government would no longer allow the situation to continue, warning that institutions and their officials would be held accountable for violations.

“This Ministry of Education is not going to let this continue. Other presidents, other governments may have allowed this to continue, but we are not going to let this continue.

“You will lose your job if you don’t act on time. Private institutions will lose their licences,” he warned.

The Federal Government’s tougher stance comes against the backdrop of longstanding concerns over student enrolment beyond approved carrying capacities, unaccredited programmes and admissions conducted outside approved procedures.

The National Universities Commission has previously warned institutions about maintaining standards, while illegal institutions and degree mills have been shut down for operating without government approval.

More recently, the NUC said newly licensed private universities would be subjected to monitoring of their governance, academic staffing, student enrolment, library resources and physical facilities, underscoring the government’s emphasis on institutional capacity before and during the admission of students.

Tools allowance payment

The Federal Government also announced the full payment of the CATA to academic staff in federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Speaking after inaugurating the accreditation committee, he said the payment was in accordance with the provisions of the 2025 Federal Government–Academic Staff Union of Universities agreement.

CATA is a financial allowance provided to academic staff to support the purchase of essential tools and materials required for teaching, research and other academic activities.

He said, “The Office of the Minister of Education is happy to announce that the full CATA payment has now been released by the Federal Government from January to August 2026 to all universities, all polytechnics and colleges of education.

“All these institutions should have received notification to start paying CATA to all academic staff.”

The minister added that payment to non-academic staff was also being processed.

“And also, the payment to non-academic staff, we’re hoping that these funds will be made available, hopefully, in the next few weeks,” he said.

According to Alausa, the payment was another indication of President Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare of academic and non-academic staff in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

Alausa said the administration’s education reforms extended beyond staff welfare, noting that significant investments were also being made in infrastructure across tertiary institutions, as well as in basic and postgraduate education.