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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Technology

Nigeria approves admission quotas for engineering programs to boost quality

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Nigeria's National Universities Commission and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board have approved admission quotas for engineering programs.
  • The measure aims to improve the quality of engineering education and practical training by aligning student intake with university resources.
  • This move is expected to enhance the competence of Nigerian engineering graduates for both domestic practice and international competition.

Nigeria's higher education regulators have finally approved the enforcement of admission quotas for engineering and technology programs. The National Universities Commission and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board will now ensure universities admit only the number of students their facilities and staff can support.

I am happy to inform the nation that we have finally gotten the approval and endorsement of both the National Universities Commission and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to enforce admission quotas in all engineering and technology programmes run by Nigerian universities.

— Prof. Sadiq AbubakarPresident of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), announcing the approval during a media briefing.

This decision, announced by the President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, is the culmination of decades of advocacy by the engineering profession. Abubakar stated that unrestricted admissions had previously overstretched resources and weakened practical training.

What this means is that the engineering profession has now come to the level of the medical profession, the legal profession, the pharmaceutical profession and similar disciplines where admissions are carefully regulated to ensure quality.

— Prof. Sadiq AbubakarExplaining the significance of the approved admission quotas.

"What this means is that the engineering profession has now come to the level of the medical profession, the legal profession, the pharmaceutical profession and similar disciplines where admissions are carefully regulated to ensure quality," Abubakar said during a media briefing. He emphasized the goal of producing competent graduates with stronger hands-on skills who can compete globally.

We are trying to ensure there is a quality training regime at the university level so that we produce competent graduates with stronger hands-on competencies who will not only practise successfully in Nigeria but compete favourably anywhere in the world.

— Prof. Sadiq AbubakarStating the objective behind the new admission regulations.

COREN is also working with the National Board for Technical Education to implement similar controls for polytechnics. Additionally, the council has reintroduced the indexing and oath-taking of engineering graduates and a mandatory one-year Engineering Residency Programme before National Youth Service Corps deployment. These measures aim to provide structured industrial exposure and enhance the employability of graduates.

This is going to be a game changer for our country and for the workforce Nigeria is likely going to export globally.

— Prof. Sadiq AbubakarDescribing the potential impact of the new policy.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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