Varsity Commission Renews Commitment To Pursuing NUS Road Map

The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, has reaffirmed his commitment towards transforming the Nigerian University System (NUS) in the year 2026, in order to leverage on the gains and achievements recorded in the out gone year 2025.

In his New Year message, Professor Ribadu recalled that he outlined a seven-point cardinal agenda that will guide him in his roadmap for the NUC-NUS when he assumed duties last December 2024, emphasizing that his administration would remain focused on these set objectives, aimed at reforming and repositioning the system in the best interest of the nation.

Professor Ribadu stressed that the roadmap was designed in tune with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu geared towards  delivering competitive higher education to the Nigerian teeming youths, in order for them to be relevant on the global stage.

The Executive Secretary said the seven point strategic goals which will guide his tenure and scorecard after five years as follows: Increasing Access, Enhancing Funding and External Support, Driving Digitisation, Strengthening Quality Assurance, Promoting Innovation and Research, Stabilising the Academic Calendar and Revisiting NUC Laws.

Giving details of the resource verification exercise,  he disclosed that 879 new programmes were introduced in the Nigerian Universities in the outgone year 2025 based on the recently approved Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), while similar accreditation exercises were conducted on the various Affiliates Institutions as well as Distance Learning Centres whose approved courses, are due for visits within the year under review and these exercises had now been structured towards standardization of Nigerian Universities for global competitiveness.

The Commission had also sustained its implementation of a new phase of quality assurance by embarking on Transnational Education (TNE) Quality Assurance in Nigerian universities, Assessment of Status of Students Support Facilities and Services in Nigerian universities, Monitoring of selected State Universities in the six geopolitical region, evaluating the quality of governance and management practices in Nigerian universities, Assessment and Verification Visit to Universities’ Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs), Students Industry Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) and University-industry Linkages (UiL) Offices as well as  Mapping and Conducting Labour Market Survey to Determine Requisite Industrial Skills.