National Universities Commission (NUC) to stop universities in the country from running Diploma programmes, urging them to adhere strictly to their approved mandates of awarding degrees and higher degrees.

The National Universities Commission (NUC) says universities in the country would soon stop diploma programmes run at undergraduate level, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, said in Abuja yesterday.

He said this when he received  the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr Masaudu Kazaure in his office.

Prof. Rasheed said only polytechnics had the statutory right to run diploma programmes.

He said the federal government had earlier issued a circular as far back as 2000 prohibiting the use of Ordinary Diploma certificates either in the promotion or employment of staff in the civil service, adding that the commission would soon notify universities to stop the programmes.

“We are going to formally put a deadline on it, that there should be no diploma again to be run by universities, let us allow those that are statutorily allowed to run diploma programmes, the polytechnics, to continue with them,” he said.

While assuring of his determination to strengthen vocational education in the country,  he said  the commission would collaborate with the NBTE  to develop a blueprint that would give polytechnics  the capacity  to run degree programmes on their own as obtainable in other countries.

Earlier, Dr. Kazaure noted that the visit was to congratulate the NUC executive secretary and seek areas of cooperation with the commission.

He dispelled rumours that the federal government had converted the Kaduna Polytechnic and Yaba College of Technology to city universities.
Kazaure, who lauded the recent decision of the Council of Civil Service Establishments to remove the dichotomy between university degree and Higher National Diploma (HND), said the move, which would allow HND holders that have Post-Graduate Diploma (PGD) to be at par with university graduates in the civil service, was a welcome development.

Daily Trust.