Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Professor Sagir Adamu-Abbas, has disclosed that the university has redesigned 30 percent of the new Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for Nigerian universities to boost skills acquisition of students and employability of graduates.
Recall that the NUC, while launching the new curriculum recently announced that the commission only developed 70 percent of the CCMAS leaving 30 percent for each university to develop in line with their peculiarities.
Adamu-Abbas also stated that the university authority has introduced various measures to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the staff and ameliorate the impact of the recent registration fee hike on the students.
He said this in Kano over the weekend, while speaking with the press about some new developments in the institution.
The vice-chancellor expressed concerns about the high level of graduate unemployment in Nigeria among whom some industries and employers of labour described as “unemployable”.
He said to effectively address the challenge, universities in Nigeria should redesign their curricula, saying the new core curriculum developed by the National Universities Commission (NUC) for Nigerian universities gives 30 percent to institutions to design based on their peculiarities.
Adamu-Abbas added that apart from establishing Skill Acquisition Centre within the Students Welfare Department, where students go to learn the trade of their choice, experts were also hired from outside the centre to train students on specific entrepreneurial skills not provided at the centre.
“Nigerian universities, not just BUK, have to redesign their curriculum. But I believe, you know that NUC has already commenced that and we have already keyed in and we have already submitted our 30% curriculum review to NUC.
“We factored industry and professional bodies in designing the 30% curriculum. That was what we did and submitted to NUC. When students graduate, they can easily fit into the industries or they can create something on their own,” he said.
Speaking on the increase in registration fees, the vice chancellor lamented that the cost of running the institution was enormous, especially the high cost of provision of electricity, which he estimated to be about N75 million monthly.
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