THE National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has unveiled an online programme for the conversion of a Higher National Diploma (HND) certification to a Bachelor’s Degree.
The programme will run through online top-ups for one year, with foreign accredited universities.
The board’s Head of Media Unit, Fatima Abubakar disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday, saying the initiative will also facilitate the progression of HND holders to higher degrees.
She said: “Attempts in the past to get the National Universities Commission (NUC) to approve a two-year Master of Technology for HND holders in some polytechnics did not see the light of the day.
“Many times, HND Holders are forced to go for a one-year Postgraduate Diploma before they could be admitted into the Master’s Programme in Universities.
“The disadvantage of the PGD is that holders who continue to do Ph.D. and wish to migrate to a Nigerian University will always be queried to produce their first degree, even when they have Doctorates.
” To end this unwarranted prejudice, NBTE has now created this progression pathway for HND holders. This can be accessed at https://topup.nbte.gov.ng.”
She further revealed that the absence of legal backing necessitated the board to find ways to enhance HND holders’ standing.
This must be done because the HND holders, in reality, hold the key to Nigeria’s industrialisation and critical skills for delivery of needed infrastructure in the country, she declared.
The step-by-step guides for HND holders to convert their certificates to a BSc degree through the NBTE’s one-year programme are highlighted as follows:
Applicant must be a holder of an HND certificate in one of the recognised and approved polytechnics and monotechnics.
Visit the admission portal https://admission.topup.nbte.gov.ng and login if you have already created an account.
Supply all your details in relation to your HND which you already have.
After creating the account you can move ahead to submission of a new application.
The university’s programs chosen should align with the technical and vocational fields covered by NBTE.
After selecting a course of your choice, you will get the option to select which institute you want to study at and there you can see their programme fees followed by a button to even view details about the institute on their institutional profile page.
After submitting the form you will see the application status under the ‘my applications’ tab and you can go ahead with the submission of the form fees (USD 100) to enable the university to start processing your admission.
You can further go to the payments tab to download your fee receipt for the application form fee payment.
After the university has approved your admission, then you can go to my application and download your admission letter.
