Stakeholders in the education sector, including the West Africa Office of the Association of African Universities (AAU), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) have launched a Framework of Action for Accelerating Academic Excellence (FAAAE) in the Nigerian higher education system.

This was unveiled at a seminar jointly hosted by the AAU West Africa Office and JAMB and attended by Vice-Chancellors, VICBHE Module 7 participants and other stakeholders in higher education in Nigeria.

The AAU Ambassador for Higher Education for West Africa and former NUC Executive Secretary, Professor Emeritus Peter Okebukola, who convened the one-day seminar, underscored the importance of accelerating academic excellence to national and regional development.

The seminar which was held virtually, was addressed by the Secretary-General of AAU, Professor Olusola Oyewole who was applauded for the giant strides AAU has made in the last two years.

Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, identified numerous barriers to academic excellence and proposed wide-ranging and sustainable strategies for building bridges across the barriers to advance academic excellence.

Also, Okebukola noted that the event was a follow-up to the Conference of Rectors, Vice-Chancellors, and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP) which held in Windhoek, Namibia from 4-7 July 2023.

In the preamble to the Framework of Action which was adopted by the 256 participants who attended the seminar, participants applauded the impressive contributions of the immediate-past Executive Secretary NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed in the revitalisation of university education in Nigeria, now being actively pursued by his successor in office Christopher Maiyaki.

They emphasised that government should not abdicate its responsibility to properly fund higher education in Nigeria.

Key elements of the Framework for Action include: “with improved resourcing of physical facilities and staff welfare, step up the drive to academic excellence especially through research and production of quality graduates to ensure the attainment of national development goals and the SDGs;

“Request all VCs to study the report of COREVIP 2023 and implement recommendations into actionable programmes in their universities;

“Effective and judicious use should be made of the resources that are currently available in the system;

“A scheme for getting all staff and students to have needed technology especially laptops for online delivery of the CCMAS should be instituted without delay;

“Implement recommendations from COREVIP 2023 that are aimed at improving academic excellence in higher education in Nigeria; and (6) capacity development of staff and partnerships should be bridges we should construct to deliver excellence.”