Fct
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has warned that university teachers who fail to bag their doctorate degrees before the 2009 deadline may lose their positions as lecturers and cease to exercise full rights over their students’ course work.
The warning came on the heels of the submission of a policy document by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to guide the introduction of entrepreneurial studies in institutions of higher learning to ensure a reduction in graduate unemployment in Nigeria.
Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Pro-fessor Julius Okojie who gave the warning over the weekend said there would be no further compromise on the issue of minimum academic qualification for teaching in the nation’s ivory towers.
This, he said, was not only fundamental to the quality of teaching and research but also a major determinant of the quality of graduates produced by individual institutions.
Okojie stated that although the non-possession of a doctorate degree will not be the end of the teaching career of such academics in the universities, the National Universities Commission may resort to the American model where such teachers are graded as tutors and their authority over academic programmes restricted to an auxiliary l evel.
He disclosed that the requirement and the directive that lecturers acquire doctorate degrees to boost their capacity to impart knowledge have been in the statute books since 1989, adding that those who failed to heed the warning will have themselves to blame when the hammer falls.
Meanwhile, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the Presidential Committee on Entrepreneurship Education has developed a project document to guide the introduction of entrepreneurial studies in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in N igeria.
The Presidential Committee comprising the International Labour Organisation (ILO), National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Education Trust Fund (ETF) as well as the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) developed the document to enhance social and economic development in Ni geria.The new document is in response to the 2006 Federal Government’s directive to all regulatory agencies in the higher education sub-sector to introduce a compulsory course on entrepreneurship education for all students in the nation’s institutions of higher le arning.Director, ILO for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ms. Sina Chuma-Mkanda Wire who presented the committee’s report to the NUC said the focus of the project was to foster an entrepreneurial culture that helps undergraduates and the academic faculty understand the fundamentals and feasibility of entrepreneurship . This , according to her , is aimed at supporting Nigerian graduates in their quest to establish and manage sustainable business ventures. She disclosed that the next phase of the assignment, which is mobilising resources for the implementation of the project, would require the support of development partners and other relevant s takeholders.
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