The National Universities Commission has decried what it described as the desperation of some academics to become professors.
In a bulletin obtained on Monday in Abuja, the NUC also noted that two high-powered committees had been set up to check the excesses in the system.
According to the bulletin, the committees inaugurated by the commission’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, include the Committee on the Review of Submission on the Procedures, Criteria and Records of Professorial Promotion by some Non-Degree Awarding Institutions in Nigeria as well as the Committee on the Development of Guidelines for Mentoring New Universities.
The bulletin read in part, “At the inauguration ceremony which was held simultaneously, the Executive Secretary told the Committee on the Review of Submissions on the Procedures, Criteria and Records of Professorial Promotion by some Non-Degree Awarding Institutions in Nigeria that NUC had found it as nauseating how some academics were now desperate to be addressed as Professors.
“This, he said, has been rampant among lecturers in private universities and called for scrutiny to safeguard the integrity of the Nigerian university system.
“According to him, to stem the tide, the commission had to send a list of Professors to Vice-Chancellors of universities for verification to ascertain who qualified as professors in the system.”
Rasheed also cited the case of some agencies such as the Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs as well as the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, who conferred the professorial title on some of their members and resource persons.
He said the Nigerian French Language Village, Topo Badagry and the National Institute of Nigerian Languages, Aba, were both guilty of this act as they conferred professorships to their members.
The statement added, “He wondered how some people could run away from the universities, and without anything in the academics, by the sheer joining of these agencies become professors.
“He lamented that some institutions and agencies go as far as the National Assembly to get a law that will endorse fake professorship on their members.
“The NUC boss charged the committee members to follow due process in their assignment to diligently bring to fore and advise NUC on international best practices and guidelines on the promotion of professorial titles to deserving academics.”
According to the statement, the NUC boss advised the committee members to be proactive in their approach to save the commission from entertaining any court cases against it.
He also reportedly advised the committee members to brainstorm even if it means setting up zoom meetings and exploring other meaningful ways to write to the agencies to stop such nefarious activities.
In carrying out their duties, he asked them to define clearly who qualifies to be addressed as a professor, explaining that even the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission would be interested in the matter.
Speaking on the second Committee on the Development of Guidelines for Mentoring New Universities, Rasheed stated that it had become obvious that NUC in the process of issuing licences to private university operators also outlines a 14-step procedure they were to follow which most public universities do not seem to have a clear understanding.
