BUK redesign CCMAS to boost skill acquisition of students

By Maryam Abeeb

The Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Professor Sagir Adamu-Abbas, has disclosed that the University has redesigned its 30 per cent of the new Core Academic Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for Nigerian universities to boost skill acquisition of students and employability of graduates.
He also revealed that the university authority has introduced various measures to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the part of the staff and ameliorate the impact of recent registration fees hike on the part of students.
Adamu-Abbas, spoke in Kano, when he received in audience, a delegation of Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN) at the Main Campus of the University.
ECAN’s delegation from Abuja was led by the chairman of the Association, Mr Chuks Ukwuatu, who commended the efforts of the Vice Chancellor in ensuring the visibility of the University, especially as BUK was ranked as fourth University in Nigeria in recent global ranking coming after University of Ibadan, University of Lagos and Covenant University.
The vice chancellor expressed concerns about the high level of graduate unemployment in Nigeria among whom some industries and employers of labour described as “unemployable”.
He noted that in order to effectively address the challenge, universities in Nigeria should redesign their curricula, saying the new core curriculum developed by the National Universities Commission (NUC) for Nigerian universities gives 30 per cent to institutions to design based on their peculiarities.
Adamu-Abbas added that apart from establishing Skill Acquisition Centre within the Students Welfare department, where students go to learn trade of their choices, experts were also hired from outside Centre to train students on specific entrepreneurial skills not provided at the Centre
The VC said: “Nigerian universities not just BUK, have to redesign their curriculum. But I believe, you know that NUC has already commenced that and we have already keyed-in and we have already submitted our 30% curriculum review to NUC.
“We factored industry and professional body in designing the 30% curriculum. That was what we did and submitted to NUC. When students graduate, they can easily fit into the industries or they can create something on their own,” he said.
Recall that NUC, while launching the new curriculum recently announced that the Commission only developed 70 per cent of the CCMAS leaving 30 per cent for each university to develop in line with the peculiarities.