House Probes Alleged Corruption in NUC during Varsity Accreditation

House Probes Alleged Corruption in NUC during Varsity Accreditation

By Adedayo Akinwale ín Abuja

The House of Representatives has ordered an investigation into the allegations of corruption at the National Universities Commission (NUC) during the accreditation of universities.

It therefore mandated its Committee on Tertiary Education and Services to investigate the allegations and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.

The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion moved by Hon. Sam Onwuaso at the plenary on Wednesday.

While moving the motion, he said that NUC accreditation system has been used over the years, to maintain and monitor quality and high academic standards in Nigerian universities, stressing that the NUC uses this process to evaluate academic programmes every five years.

Onwuaso said that in the course of carrying out its mandate, the NUC Accreditation Teams undertake on-the-spot assessment of facilities, lecture halls, quality of academic content and laboratories, among others to ensure that the universities meet up with the required standards to run such academic programmes in order to determine whether to revoke, withhold or grant accreditation.

He however expressed worry by allegations of intimidation and extortion of huge sums of money from universities in order for their programmes to be accredited.

“Also worried that the alleged monetary demands for accreditation may have led to some universities increasing their tuition fees so as to be able to meet up with the demands of the NUC Accreditation teams,” he said.

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