The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, mni, MRF, FNAL, has described the choice of the Federal Road Safety Corps Academy to affiliate with the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) as a welcome development, noting however the need for the Corps to formalise the processes with the management of the University before seeking the approval of the Commission.

He said this, last Tuesday while receiving the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi who came to brief him on the progress made so far by the Academy with FUTO. The NUC scribe maintained the Commission would continue to ensure that institutions desiring for such to operate within the ambit of the NUC’s laid down guidelines.

Professor Rasheed decried the fact that some universities placed too much financial burden on their affiliate institutions, which, he said, should not be, explaining that the role of parent universities as stipulated by NUC guidelines for affiliation was to provide mentorship to the affiliate institutions to ensure quality of their academic programmes.

According to him, “to ensure strict compliance, last year, we conducted monitoring exercise to ascertain the level of mentorship of parent universities on affiliate institutions. This is because we want to ensure that Universities do not deviate from our guidelines on affiliation.”

The Executive Secretary, who extolled the virtues of Dr. Oyeyemi, stressed that there was need for him to intensify efforts in order to achieve the proposed affiliation. He assured the Corps Marshal that the Commission would do all within its powers to help the Academy realize its vision of becoming a World-Class institution, poised towards addressing the skill gap in the areas of transportation management and safety in the country.

In his remarks, the Corps Marshall thanked the Executive Secretary and the NUC Management team for receiving the delegation despite the short notice.

He acknowledged the role of the NUC in maintaining the quality of degrees awarded in Nigerian higher education institutions (HEIs). He added that the importance of the Commission as a regulatory agency for degree awarding institution in Nigeria could not be over emphasized.

The Corps Marshal informed the Executive Secretary that the Academy intended to kick-start its academic activities with post-graduate programmes in Transport Technology and Road Safety Engineering, stressing that he had sent the status report of the affiliation to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), who subsequently referred him to the Honourable Minister of Education.

Dr. Oyeyemi stated that Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FUTO could not be signed without recourse to the NUC, hence the visit, pointing out that

there were still some grey areas to be sorted out on the modalities of the affiliation. He assured the Executive Secretary that the modalities would be sorted out in due time and all formal documents and the MoU forwarded to the Commission for the Executive Secretary’s approval.

The Corps Marshal was  accompanied by Deputy Corps Marshal Godwin Intukidem and Assistant Corps Marshal Julius Asom.

At the meeting were NUC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Barrister Victor Onuoha; Directors of Research, Innovation and Information Technology, Dr. Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf and Executive Secretary’s Office, Mr. Chris Maiyaki.