Abstract
The Nigerian higher education system, with 297 institutions (universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education) and enrolling over 3.5 million students, is the most expansive in Africa. Highly respected in the past, the system is now sadly paled among other quality-depressing factors by activities of degree mills. Persons who want certificates at any cost and lack the basic entry requirements for admission into available spaces in approved institutions make up one of the pools from which degree mills draw their students. The other source is the candidates leftover after an admission season. In 2008, it is expected that about 80 percent of the over one million candidates who sat for the Universities Matriculation Examination will fall into this category. Holders of degrees from these bogus institutions are decried by employers in the private and public sector for their poor knowledge and skills in the fields they claim to have tertiary-level education. Attainment of the Nigerian vision of being one of the top 20 economies by 2020 will be compromised by the injection of such poor-quality graduates into the economy. Herein lies the distaste for and the raison d'etre for government's clampdown on degree mills. Four major institutional arrangements qualify as degree mills in the Nigerian context. These establishments constitute unapproved satellite campuses of local and foreign universities, unapproved subdegree institutions serving as affiliates of approved universities, unapproved programs run in universities, and online courses offered by rogue foreign providers. From 1995 to 2001, these “pollutants” produced annually about 15 percent of total university “graduates” in Nigeria. Between 2001 and 2004, a sharp drop in output occurred, followed by a slight rise between 2005 and 2006. By 2007, the activities of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the regulatory agency for the universities, induced a significant drop in the number of institutions and their enrollment. Sustenance of the momentum of the NUC clampdown is expected to reduce the activities of degree mills to nonsignificance.
Highlights
Imposing Restrictions In the past 9 years, a flurry of activity has been directed at eradicating the degree mills—seven of which are noteworthy
National Universities Commission (NUC) is partnered with the Department of State Services—Nigeria's secret service—in locating, arresting, and prosecuting operators of unapproved universities and satellite campuses
Degree mills thrive on fertile grounds provided by a combination of desperate students and easy-profit-seeking providers
Summary
The Nigerian higher education system, with 297 institutions (universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education) and enrolling over 3.5 million students, is the most expansive in Africa. The third action is the establishment and enforcement of the carrying capacity of approved programs—the maximum number of students that available resources can support in the production of quality graduates This regulation ensured that universities do not overenroll through illegal degree-mill operations. Since online and cross-border programs are yet to be backed up for recognition purposes by any national policy or law, the publication of the directory, as a seventh strategy, will screen out degree mills from institutions at which potential students would desire enrollment. In the last three years, the National Youth Service Corps Scheme into which university graduates are fed has stepped up its regime of screening out products from bogus institutions and unapproved programs Together, these efforts have translated into an estimated 70 percent success rate in the war against degree mills
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