Waste of time, resources on useless diplomas

It was another apt decision in the education sector when the National Universities Commission (NUC) recently announced that Nigerian universities will soon stop running diploma programmes at the undergraduate level. This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, while receiving his counterpart, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical […]

It was another apt decision in the education sector when the National Universities Commission (NUC) recently announced that Nigerian universities will soon stop running diploma programmes at the undergraduate level. This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, while receiving his counterpart, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr Masaudu Kazaure, in his office in Abuja last week.
Professor Rasheed accurately re-affirmed that only polytechnics have the statutory mandate to run diploma programmes. He recalled that the federal government had issued a circular in 2000 prohibiting the use of Ordinary Diploma (OD) certificates for employment or promotion of staff in the civil service. Professor Rasheed declared that NUC would instruct universities to stop running diploma programmes, adding that a deadline would soon be set for universities to that effect.
The NBTE, which was established in 1977, is the parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Education specifically created to handle all aspects of technical and vocational education falling outside the borders of university education. Besides providing standardized minimum benchmark for technical and vocational education in the country, NBTE’s core mandate involves the accreditation of all academic programmes, including diploma courses, offered by technical institutions in Nigeria. NBTE, not NUC, is the only government agency in the country statutorily charged with the responsibility of accrediting diploma programmes even when such courses are run by universities. This gives credence to the argument that any diploma programme that exists at the undergraduate level in a university is virtually in the wrong place.
While certificates issued to graduates of diploma programmes that lack recognition and accreditation of the NBTE are called Ordinary Diploma certificates, even where the course is domicile in a polytechnic, those issued to graduates of the same diploma courses that have NBTE’s approval and accreditation are called National Diploma (ND), a distinction that depicts less value for the OD certificate. Most universities that run diploma programmes make little or no effort to have such courses accredited by the NBTE, which explains why they issue OD certificates.  This factor provides the basis for government’s refusal to recognize OD certificates for employment or promotion purposes in the civil service. Aside of these inadequacies, the OD certificate issued at the successful end of a course is useful for admission purpose in the university that offered the course and issued the certificate.
The running of diploma programmes is outside the core mandate of universities in Nigeria. With over 100 federal, state and private polytechnics in the country and dozens of monotechnics, which are many enough to run a wide range of diploma programmes, universities should have no business adding diploma courses to their existing list of academic programmes.
Diploma programmes are specifically designed to provide middle level technical manpower required by manufacturing industries. The shortage of this manpower is identified to be a major constraint to the development of the country. However, universities run diploma programmes essentially to boost their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base, not exactly to fill the gap created by manpower shortages in the real sector. Hence they have little concern for the utility of the certificates earned by graduates of their diploma programmes. This, in effect, can only be described as a waste of time of the affected students and of the resources of their parents. Indeed, a certificate that is not recognized for employment or promotion in the civil service is not worth acquiring.
While we commend the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Professor Rasheed, for taking from universities that which does not actually belong to them, we urge the authorities at the NBTE to deny accreditation to university diploma programmes, if universities seek the agency’s endorsement to run the illegal programmes. In view of NUC’s position on this matter, universities are advised to henceforth stop further admission of students  into worthless diploma courses.