By Umar Muhammed Puma.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday called on universities in the country to adhere strictly to their quota by only admitting students for courses accredited.
The House also mandated its Committee on Education to work out modalities to ensure compliance with the requirement.
The resolution followed a motion by Rep. Nathaniel Agunbiade (APC-Osun), which was adopted when put to vote by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Emeka Ihedioha.
The motion was entitled: “Need to Curb the Practice of Universities Admitting Students in Excess of their Allotted Quota and in Courses which were not Accredited by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC)’’.
Agunbiade noted that NUC was charged with the responsibility of accrediting courses for universities.
He said the NUC also had the responsibility of guiding admissions of candidates into those courses.
According to him, NUC also controls, monitors and allots quota to universities on issues pertaining to admission into courses of study.
The lawmaker expressed concern that some universities do not conform to the quota allotted to them by NUC.
He alleged that such universities usually admitted students in excess of their quota into courses which they were not accredited to offer.
According to him, upon completion of their studies, such students are usually left to their fate as they are often not absorbed into the next phase of their training.
He said that at times, such students were not even allowed to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme due to result of non-accreditation of their courses of study.
Agunbiade urged the house to look into the matter to ensure that the right thing was done.
In their contributions, Reps. Akpodiogaga Emeyese (PDP-Delta), and Friday Itulah (PDP-Edo), agreed that NUC as a regulatory body should ensure that universities adhere to their quota.
They said it was such incidences that had contributed to the backlog of fallen standard in education in the country.
However, Rep. Ossai Ossai (PDP-Delta), opposed the motion, adding that accreditation in higher institutions, was a process and NUC had been saddled to take care of such accreditation.
Ossai argued that because accreditation was a process, the house could not use a motion to ask NUC to comply.
“The university is so complex that only universities understand the system, I believe that the motion has no impact.
“I, therefore, urged the mover of the motion to step it down because it has no merit,’’ he said.
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