NUC, TETFUND to Meet Varsities over Questionable Honorary Degrees, VCs Appointment

Following the recent eyebrows that have been raised concerning the awards of honorary degrees and appointments of Vice Chancellors by some universities, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) are to meet with universities across the country to streamline modalities for such awards and appointments and if necessary dish out punishment against universities that might have abused the rules.

The meeting is necessitated by the recent award of honoris causa and the appointments of some Vice Chancellors that were said to have fallen below the expected standards. The move might also not be unconnected with the flagrant abuse of the rules and regulations governing the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), particularly, the Keffi Declaration enacted in 2012 to checkmate abuses associated with awards of honorary degrees.

The Keffi Declaration, Section 2.0 subsection (a) states that “AVCNU member-universities hereby make it a policy not to honour with honorary degree anybody holding political office (elected or appointed) while such officers are still in service.” The rules further stated that “a university shall not award honorary degrees if it has not graduated any PhD or has no postgraduate school or programme.”
Speaking to journalists in a parley in Abuja, yesterday, NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie, said it had become sacrosanct to stop the menace, where honorary degrees are awarded to persons with questionable character.

Okojie explained that “not too long ago a private university that was going to start the matriculation ceremony was also thinking of awarding honorary degrees.”

“Ordinarily, a chancellor of a university cannot award degrees until he earns the degree of that university so, if it is his first convocation ceremony, that university may have the right to award honorary degree, doctorate to that chancellor if it is a new institution.

We intend to have a workshop for all universities and I have discussed with the Executive Secretary, TETFUND, we need a workshop because a lot of things are happening, not just convocation alone, even matriculation and even the appointment of vice chancellors.”
He cited an example where “recently” someone worked into” his “office and said he was a vice chancellor somewhere,” “I asked when he obtained his PhD, he said two years ago, and you are a professor, he said yea. I said no, there are minimum academic standards; you must pass through a process. We think we need to address that area of the university system as to what you require to appoint principal officers not just award of degrees,” he stressed.

On mechanism put in place to scrutinise cases of abuses in grading students’ performance, Okojie said: “Examination administration is also a very important aspect of the university system, there are universities now we have not been able to determine whether they are going to award degrees, you must have somebody come from another university whether within the country or outside the country to look at the quality of work you are doing, look at students’ projects.

“I am almost sure that with the number of universities that we have, if we don’t have an experienced Vice chancellor, we may not know. It is only when we go for accreditation we ask for their records and terminal report. “To the best of my knowledge they are doing well there, but we must educate the university that these are the steps required; this is the tradition of the university system.

“It is good to know that private universities are moving quickly but most of these things are going to come from those settings where somebody who has never been a dean becomes a vice chancellor. You cannot just be an experienced man over night. We will be in very close touch with them, we are going to have a workshop and write out the minimum requirement for appointment of principal officers,” the NUC boss stated.