Curbing illegal admissions in tertiary institutions

The Federal Government recently disclosed that it uncovered over 258,000 illegal admissions in Nigerian universities and colleges of education.

According to the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, 58,000 students were illegally admitted into colleges of education, while no fewer than 200,000 students were admitted in universities. The minister revealed this at the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions, chaired by the immediate past Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede.

Alausa reiterated that the ministry had anticipated that the exercise to involve only about 5,600 but the eventual figure stood at 58,000 across colleges of education in the country. In one institution, the minister said, about 8,593 were legally admitted, while 9,872 were illegally admitted. This means that the number of illegal students had exceeded those admitted through approved process.

The minister also lamented that the practice had made it difficult for regulators to establish the actual number of students being trained. He also said that the practice was undermining the credibility and quality of tertiary education in the country. Alausa stated that the ministerial committee on strengthening the accreditation and quality assurance system for tertiary institutions had a critical role to play in eliminating illegal admissions and strengthening the system.

We commend the ministry for uncovering the admission fraud and urge the new committee on accreditation and quality assurance to curb the crisis of illegal admissions in our tertiary institutions. Therefore, the ongoing effort by the Federal Government to end illegal admissions in Nigerian universities and colleges of education is a welcome development and must be sustained. If left unchecked, the practice will lead to the production of half-baked graduates and poor-quality teachers in the country. Already, there are concerns in the labour market about the quality of Nigerian graduates.

It is sad that employers of labour now complain that only a small proportion of hundreds of applicants possess the competence required for available jobs. The minister warned that the government would no longer tolerate practices that undermine the quality of tertiary education. Therefore, those in charge of quality assurance in these tertiary institutions should rise to the occasion and ensure that high academic standard is maintained in these institutions. We appeal to heads of these institutions to end illegal admissions by insisting on approved admission quotas.

We call on the government to address the causes of illegal admissions in universities, colleges of education and polytechnics. They include financial extortion and admission racketeering, profiteering from over-enrolment, bypassing academic quotas and regulations and lowering cut-off criteria. In all these, bribes and slot selling are involved. Other factors fueling admission racketeering include desperation among candidates and parents, ignorance of the rules.

There is no doubt that high competition and limited legal slots push thousands of anxious students and parents to seek illegal ways to gain admission. In some institutions, corrupt administrative staff or third-party syndicates can exploit applicants by selling highly competitive placement slots for large sums of money.

Unfortunately, the admission process in these institutions has not been able to eliminate illegal admissions because of systemic corruption in the system. Government and heads of tertiary institutions in the country should be strict in ensuring that tertiary institutions adhere to their approved admission quotas.

There must be appropriate sanctions for those that bridged their admission quotas. The government should stop granting amnesty to the students involved. We say this because continuous amnesty to those involved in illegal admissions will invariably breed new ones. Once the government is serious on ending the granting of amnesty to the victims, the obnoxious practice must end.

However, the current emphasis on paper qualifications should give way to skill acquisition. There is a link between paper qualification and the rise in illegal admission in our tertiary intuitions. Let the government establish more technical colleges with emphasis on acquiring the much-needed skills for technical jobs and even for entrepreneurship, job creation and self-employment.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education should henceforth stop the amnesty given to students and universities involved in these illegal admissions. We believe that doing so will go a long way in curbing the menace of illegal admissions in our tertiary institutions.