How NUC accredits affiliate degree awarding institutions in Nigeria | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
2nd June 2019
Every degree awarded in Nigeria must be accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to be legally recognised. While the role of awarding degrees is mainly with universities, NUC also accredits some tertiary institutions as affiliate degree awarding institutions in Nigeria.
The accreditation department of the NUC manages all accreditation of degree programmes. Under it is the Affiliate Accreditation Division, which manages those of affiliate degree awarding institutions in the country. The division has units for federal, state and private universities.
Aside the coordination of the accreditation of Full-Time/Part-Time programmes in Affiliate Institutions, the affiliate division does the following.
The affiliate degree awarding institutions in Nigeria range from regular polytechnics to colleges of education. We also have seminaries/theological institutions, monotechnics, colleges of legal studies and other post-secondary school institutions that offer degree programmes in affiliation with approved universities.
The NUC regularly has a list of them on itswebsite and in its weekly bulletin. Universities are also expected to advertiseadmissions into such institution that are affiliated with them.
Candidates seeking admission into affiliate institutions are not exempted from the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) from 2018.
At the end of their studies, students ofaffiliate degree awarding institutions are awarded degrees of the motheruniversity.
Invariably, affiliate degree awarding institutions may develop their staffing and facilities to become accredited universities as time progresses but that is not sacrosanct. For example, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education used to be Ignatius Ajuru College of Education and an affiliate of the University of Ibadan for its degree programmes.
The following instruments are used foraccreditation of Affiliate Institutions:
Click here to see the list of approved affiliate degree awarding institutions in Nigeria.