National Universities Commission (NUC) yesterday suspended part-time programmes in all universities in the country.
The Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof Julius Okojie, disclosed this in Abuja while announcing the accreditation of 30 programmes run by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
Okojie said the move was aimed at checkmating the level of illegalities embedded in the running of the programmes, as well as bringing them in line with best practices.
“For now all part-time programmes are suspended. We are going to streamline them”, he said.
“Universities should not have more than 20 per cent of their total student population in part-time programmes,” he added.
Okojie said that the reasons for suspending the part-time programmes include illegal operations by some of the institutions and over-bloated population in the admission process.
According to the NUC boss, admission into part-time programme will no longer exceed 20 per cent intake, adding that lectures for all part-time programme will be restricted to university campuses only.
He emphasised that regulation is the major part of the commission’s activities and NUC will not hesitate to wield the big stick on any defaulting institution.
Meanwhile, the NUC has announced the accreditation of 30 programmes being run by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).Twenty-six programmes, representing 83.9 per cent, was given interim accreditation, while four courses representing 12.9 per cent of the total programme, were given full accreditation.