QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT:APPRAISAL OF REGULATION MODELS IN NIGERIA. A. I. Olorunfemi 1, M. O.

Transcription

1 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT:APPRAISAL OF REGULATION MODELS IN NIGERIA BY A. I. Olorunfemi 1, M. O. Ashaolu 2 1 Agricultural Engineering Department, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos. issacfemmy@yahoo.com, isaacfemi@hotmail.com 2 Agricultural Engineering Department, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos. ashaolumike@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This paper presents the major challenges confronting quality assurance of Engineering Education in Nigerian institutions which have been characterized by inadequate and low skilled manpower development, poor research network, and lack of adequate teaching aids, poor funding and weak industry-institutions relationship. Most engineering certificates have been considered not robust enough for employment, especially by multinational organizations. This paper examines the roles of the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) in the accreditation and moderation of engineering programmes and in Nigerian educational development. The studies observed that the test measurement parameters adopted are not consistent and are more theoretical rather than practical evaluation. Also there is lack of interactions between the three regulating bodies through networking, feedback mechanism, standardization of test measurement tools and appropriate rating of the institutions. Team visitations for the evaluation of programmes are with long notice rather than impromptu, encouraging window dressing rather than reality. The paper concludes that, to enhance quality-engineering education in Nigeria, the activities of regulation bodies require restructuring by addressing practical content and foster interaction with the industries and among the various moderation bodies. The performance questionnaire should be modified to address research activities, industrial partnership to improve both funding and facilities for training. Core- industrial practioners of engineering should be engaged to serve as team members to enhance the quality of assessment and recommendations. Visitations to institution need not be an elaborate team but a compact one with impromptu visitation adopted for effective quality assurance measurement. Key Words: Quality, Accreditation, Appraisal, Networking, Funding, Facilities, Impromptu

2 INTRODUCTION Nigerian s higher education journey started in 1932 with the establishment of Yaba Higher College by the then colonial government. Prior to this time most Nigerians sought higher education mostly in Britain after the completion of higher schools. The college was established to provide well qualified assistance in medical, engineering and other vocations. This was followed with the establishment of the University College (a college of University of London) in the growing yearnings for higher education among Nigerians. The trend continues with the establishment of University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1960 (the first indigenous University in Nigeria) and to ensure geographical balance, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ife and University of Lagos were established simultaneously in 1962 under the Ashby commission concerning balance in the structure and geographical distribution of University Education (Okojie, 2008). According to Abah (2008), more than four Million qualified candidates have failed to secure admission to the nation s Universities in the last five years. This represents 88% of the total number of candidates seeking admission. Also, 11.2 percent of the 4.5 million candidates who wrote the Universities Matriculation Examination were offered admission between 2003 and In 2004 of the 838,051 who wrote UME, only about 122,482 Candidates were offered admission, while in 2005 only 76,984 of the over 917,960 Candidates were admitted. Also in 2006, only about 95,524 of the 804,090 Candidates secured admission while 107,370 from among the 911,653 Candidates secured admission in Omoregie (2008) observed that presently there is growing population explosion in both Federal and State Universities due to over enrolment without expansion of facilities. Student enrolment in 57 Universities was 823,210 in Classrooms are over crowded while laboratories and other learning materials are grossly inadequate because of insufficient funding. UNESCO budgetary recommendation to educational sector is 26 percent and several budgetary allocations to education fell short of this minimal benchmark. In 2007 national budget of billion naira only 13.9billion was allocated which represents 1.83 percent and subsequent year s allocations have not shown any improvement (Omorioge, 2008). Nigeria University and Polytechnic Education had grown over the years with the establishment of more state and private owned Universities as classified in Table 1. Nigeria has presently 12 technology based Universities (about 13%) of the entire institutions which is not adequate to meet the teeming population of candidate seeking enrolment in engineering education. Table 1: Classification of Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics S/N Specializ Technology Military Conventi Agricultur Total ed based onal e U P U P U P U P U P U P 1 Federal Institutions State Universities/Polytechnic 3 Private Universities/Polytechnic TOTAL Source: Okojie (2008), JAMB (2005) U-Universities, P-Polytechnic 2

3 ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE As defined by Brusselmans et al (1998) accreditation is the procedure by which creditability is given by an external body to a programme/department/institution while quality assurance are planned activities and actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a programme will satisfy given requirements of quality. The accreditation procedure is the comparison of the outcome with the attributes and objectives using the evidence. Accreditation is granted if these match. This approach is employed as a model in the evaluation of programmes in Nigerian Universities. Reyes et al (2008) reported that accreditation intents to guarantee quality and public accountability in the educational system, encouraging trust on behalf of students, parents, employers, education administration and society in general. It helps to provide society with information relating to the quality of educational systems which can be used in favour of public accountability. Accreditation as a tool of progress facilitates interaction between educational system and social agents for the benefit of adequate University response to society s needs, as it promotes culture of quality. Accreditation in Engineering Education and in engineering profession is a commitment with quality and with consumer protection and for engineers as a way of being global in a global world. Dustin (2006) identified basic requirements for quality assurance systems of Universities competitive as: The quality assurance system of the University should cover both quality control and quality development. Quality assurance must be an integral part of the University overall strategy, cover all the subunits and be applied systematically. The results of internal and external evaluations and of other quality assurance measures must be used continuously to improve the quality of teaching and research. RANKING OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES The low ranking of Nigerian Universities is due to the following myriads of problems which have affected the quality of graduates: Poor infrastructures Low funding Poor staff to student ratio Low practical content due to poor facilities Inadequate training programme Surek (2001) observed that there is a relationship between funding, management and quality assurance of engineering education in developing countries in the production of quality engineers. Identified limitation is that the products of these schools/colleges work only in their own country thus educational globalization have little or no meaning for them. Recent ranking of the world Universities showed that no Nigerian Universities made the top 500 Universities in the world in the THES QS world Universities Ranking with the University of Cape Town, South-Africa as the only African University in the top 500(Ariole 2007). Nigeria Universities ranking is more pathetic because they trail behind some Universities in countries with fewer natural resources. In the accreditation exercise carried out in 2006, a total of 1, 343 undergraduate degree programmes were evaluated in 48 Universities comprising 25 3

4 Federal, 20 state and three private Universities. The academic programmes were evaluated and scored on the following criteria: staffing, 32; academic content, 23; physical facilities, 25; Library, 12; funding, employers rating, 3. Out of the 571 courses evaluated about 42.5 percent were awarded full accreditation status; about 49.9 percent earned interim accreditation while about 7.6 percent failed to meet the prescribed minimum academic standard and hence, were denied accreditation. NUC claimed that the schools lacked the requisite number of competent staff and facilities to student s population. The quality of research publications also suffered indictment. In 2005, the National Universities Commission (NUC) carried out a comprehensive assessment of locally published journals, which serve as publication outlets for Nigerian academics and found that 97.2 percent did not measure up to international standard. (Ariole 2007) The result of the assessment which used international set of journal evaluation criteria show that of the 138 locally published journals assessed, only 4 or 2.8 percent qualified for inclusion in group A (international standard); 10 journals, representing 7.2 percent, made it to group B (prospective international standard); 112 (representing 18.2 percent) belonged to group C (local standard) and 11 (representing 8.0 percent) belonged to group D (super local standard). The exercise further showed that only Medicine and Health Sciences produced Group A journals. Most of the Super-Local journals are published by university departments within which the editorial team resides, and the articles of which are up to 95 percent by members of the publishing University (Ariole, 2007). Critical of all factors responsible for the problems of engineering education are lack of fund to purchase consumables for practical work and the purchase of new equipment for laboratories and workshops. Most of the existing ones are obsolete. Report shows that between 1993 and 2003, the University system witnessed 36 months of total closure. In addition to this are enrolment and establishment of satellite campuses, as a means of generating more funds to meet shortfalls in proprietor provision. Overcrowding of Universities with mediocre students, accounts in large part for many of the social vices on our campuses such as examination malpractice, cultism and sorting. While the lectures alleged lack of funding as the main factor affecting standards, the government blamed the problems on managerial inadequacies and indiscipline: which led to problems including over population caused by over-enrolment, poor maintenance culture, poor sanitary situations, low quality teaching, examination malpractices, late admission, sorting (students bribing lectures to pass courses), cultism and other social vices (Okebukola, 2006). PROGRAMME ACCREDITATION MODELS OF NIGERIAN INSTITUTIONS The three programme regulating bodies are: (1) NUC National Universities Commission (2) NBTE National Board for Technical Education (3) COREN Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigerian Programme accreditation in Nigerian Institution came into existence with the Federal Government edict of section 10 of Act No 16 of 1965 which created National University Commission in 1988 and empowered to provide quality control through Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) for Universities. A National Board for technical education (NBTE) was also established to regulate programmes in Nigerian Polytechnics and Technical colleges. These institutions provide the minimum benchmark for various disciplines in Nigerian Universities Higher Education. The NUC procedure for any accreditation exercise is based on the following criteria: i. Manual for accreditation procedures for academic programmes in Nigerian Universities. ii. Self-Study Form (NUC/SSF) 4

5 iii. Programme Evaluation Form (NUC/PEF) iv. Accreditation Panel Report Form (NUC/APRF) v. Accreditation Re-visitation Form (NUC/ARVF) The major objectives of accreditation of academic programmes by NUC are: a. Ensure that at least the provisions of the MAS documents are attained, maintained and enhanced. b. Assure employers and other members of the community that Nigerian graduates of all academic programmes have attained an acceptable level of competency in their areas of specialization. c. Certify to the international community that the programmes offered in Nigerian Universities are of high standards and their graduates are adequate for employment and for further studies. Programmes for accreditation include the following field of Engineering in both Universities and Polytechnic: Mechanical, Electrical, Agricultural, food Chemical, Civil, Computer, Environmental, Marine, Electronics and Communication, Industrial, Metallurgical and Materials, Petroleum and System. NIGERIAN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS ACCREDITATION PROCEDURE AND EVALUATION Accreditation of programmes are classified into three major status which are discussed in Table 2 i. Interim Accreditation Status. ii. Full Accreditation Status. iii. Deemed Accreditation Status. Table 2: Accreditation Classification Status in Nigeria Universities S/N Criteria Full Accreditation Status 1 Minimum Academic Standards Satisfied (No deficiencies) 2 Period Granted Three(3) years academic sessions with a mid-term appraisal 3 In 4 core areas of Academic content, staffing, physical facilities and library 4 Aggregate score Overall 5 Student Enrolment Granted Enrolment Source: NUC (1999) 5 Interim Accreditation Status Not satisfied (Minor deficiencies) Not more than 2- academic sessions, failure of which is converted to deemed status Deemed Accreditation Status Failed to satisfied all minimum requirements i.e. Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) The re-visitation of the programme is at the discretion and interest of the concerned Universities. Minimum of 70% Less than 70% Less than 60% Minimum of 70% Minimum of 60% Less than 60% in aggregate score May continue to admit Ceases to admit students students

6 The award of diplomas and degrees for these programmes are in the First Degrees (B. Eng, B.Sc and second Degrees (M.Sc, M. Phil), National Diploma (ND), Higher National Diploma (HND) and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD). The procedures adopted by the National University of Commission (NUC) in the accreditation of programmes are presented as follows: Level 1 3-month notice is given the affected institutions on programmes to be visited along with a detailed self-study questionnaire Level 2 The University completes the questionnaire and return twelve copies of the form in respect of each programme to be accredited Level 3 Constitution of Accreditation panel upon the receipt of the completed forms Level 4 Visitation proper to be lead by a Senior Professor in the team with accreditation exercise. Level 5 Collation of reports scoring and presentation to the VC of the institution that must comment and signed the report Level 6 Verification (quantitative assessment) of reports by the NUC board and release of result of the exercise to the public Fig 1: Institutions Programmes Accreditation Procedure 6

7 The major components used for Accreditation of programmes in Nigerian Universities and Polytechnic are presented in tables 3 & 4. These are the basic criteria used by the auditing panels in the accreditation of Engineering Programmes. Table 3: Components of Accreditation in Nigeria Universities S/N Components Sub-component a. Academic Matters i. The programme philosophy and objectives ii. The Curriculum iii. Admission requirements iv. Academic regulations v. Course evaluation (examination and continuous assessment vi. Student course evaluation vii. External examination system b. Staffing i. Academic staff ii. Non-academic staff iii. Head of department/discipline/sub-discipline iv. Staff development c. Physical Facilities i. Laboratory/clinic/studio facility (area per student) and equipment ii. Classroom facilities and equipment iii. Laboratory size (area per student) and equipment iv. Safety and environment d. Financing of Programme by the University e. Books, Journals and other resource materials for the programme f. Employer s rating of graduates Source: NUC (1999) 7

8 Table 4: Components of Accreditation in Nigerian Polytechnic Section Components Sub-component 1 General i. History of Department/sectors ii. Department/Section administration structure description for personnel administration, student s welfare, examination, academic atmosphere, Espirit and Discipline. 2 Academic Matters i. Goal and objectives of the programme. ii. The Curriculum iii. Appraisal of Enrolment, withdrawal and graduation iv. Standard and quality of Students work consisting of institutions academic regulations samples of tests and examination question papers in the professional and general education courses. v. List of projects and thesis and extended essays undertaken by final year students, external examiners report vi Standard and quality of students work, coverage of syllabus, standard practical work and projects. Vii External examiners report. 3 Training Facilities i. Classrooms and lecture hall ii. Laboratory iii Studio/ Drawing room iv Workshops iv. Office accommodation v Field facilities (Agriculture) Crop farms Livestock Farms Vi Library: Adequacy of Books, Journals 4 Teaching and support staff i Qualification are adequacy in terms of staff to student ratio ii Level of effectiveness in (i) Lecturers (ii) Instructors iii Core Teaching Staff iv Service Staff v Technical Support Staff vi Professional Competence and achievements vii Administrative Support Staff viii Administration of Department / Staff Development Programme 5 Funding of programmes I Recurrent funding Ii Capital Funding Iii Provisions and Appropriations 6 Employer s rating of students 7 Assessment of the achievement of goal objectives Source: NBTE

9 NTBE ACCREDITATION EVALUATION MODEL Programme and mode of assessment accreditation in Polytechnics, Monotechnies, Colleges of Agriculture and similar tertiary institutions in Nigeria has been ranked into four: Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. These are used in the scoring of every activities/ sub- components as presented in Tables 5& 6. These tables including 3 & 4 discusses the basic standards used by auditing panel as references in the evaluation of programmes to be accredited. The procedure for evaluation involve: 1. Numeric and non-numeric score of items as presented in table This is followed by brief comments on each of the components to justify the score. 3. Summary of each of the sections highlighting the major merits and deficiencies. 4. The team recommendation is made available to the board based on summary report. The constitution of the auditing team include a A Senior Professor (Team Leader) b Sub-team Leader of each programme headed by a Professor with other two members of minimum Senior Lecturer/ Chief Lecturer Status (Ph.D) c A Member of Professional body, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) d A Member of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) e A Secretary from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) or National Universities Commission (NUC). The auditing panels, Comprises of well experienced Senior Professors among others, from various institutions without long time notice to avoid any prior contact with the institutions whose programmes are being accredited. They are briefed and then provided with the questionnaires to be studied before the commencement of accreditation exercise. Table 5: Numeric and Non-Numeric Scoring Of Programmes SCORING ACCREDITED/RE- ACCREDITED NOT ACCREDITED Numeric Minimum 60% Below 60% Non- Numeric Fair Poor Source: NBTE (1999) Table 6: NBTE Programme Evaluation Model Chart Scoring Format S/No COMPONENT Very Good Good Fair Poor 1 Goal and Objectives of the Programme Clearly defined Not well stated 2 Curriculum Meets NBTE specification 9 Not well stated but followed goals &objective Uses NBTE specification without Course content covered Differ from NBTE goal Differ from NBTE specification

10 3 Admission into Programme 4 Academic Regulations 5 Standard of tests and examinations with marking scheme 6 Standard of tests and examinations with marking scheme 7 Funding (a) Recurrent (b) Capital All students enrolled meet the requirement Exist Well developed and covered Very good mastery of subjects N2000 allocated annually for 3years modification 90-99% meet the requirement 80-89% meet the requirements More than 20% did not meet the requirements Do not Exist Exist not well Exist not publicized Comprehensive Well covered Available Do not Exist Good mastery of subjects N N 1800 allocated annually in the last one year Fair understanding N 1000 N 1400 Poor understanding Below N1000 allocation. 8 Success / Failure Rate % 80-89% 70-79% 70% below 9 Practical, coverage and quality reporting 100% coverage 90% coverage 75% coverage Less than 50% coverage 10 Project Very well defined aim and objectives Well defined aim and Fairly define aim and Hazy aim and objectives 11 External moderation scheme Exists with well qualified and experienced assessors objectives Qualified and experienced assessors objectives Fairly qualified and experienced assessors External moderation not qualified 12 Physical facilities Very adequate Adequate Fairly adequate Inadequate 13 Staffing Very adequate Adequate Fairly adequate Inadequate Lecturers/instructors 14 Library Available and well Available but Insufficient Not available stock fairly stock quantity Source: NBTE (1999) ACCREDITATION CONSTRAINTS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION The basic problem hindering engineering education accreditation is the lack of trust in the level and quality of institution/graduate student. Surek (2001) established an interrelationship between funding in Nigerian Universities, managerial capability on quality assurance of engineering education in developing countries in the production of quality engineers. The identified limitation is that the products of these schools/colleges work only in their own country and educational globalization has little or no meaning for them. These problems are also associated with larger developing countries such as India and the Philipines as well as in very small developing countries, such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Arab countries. 10

11 Other Major constraints identified are: Non-transparency of institutions for programmes to be accredited Short time frame to asses and complete report Inadequate facilities to ensure prompt verification of programmes Managerial inadequacies and indiscipline These challenges have adversely affected the number of programmes accredited as observed in 1999/91 to 2005/06 sessions (Table 7). Only 22.1% of the programmes in 1990/91 gained accreditation status which drop in 1999/2000 to 11.4% and improved slightly in 2005/06 to 44.8%. Table 7: Universities Performance in Accreditation Year of Number of Accreditation Status accreditation programmes Full Interim Denied accredited 1990/ (22.1%) 572 (68.4% 79 (9.5%) 1999/2000 1, (11.4%) 2005/2006 1, (44.8% Source: Ariole (2007) (71.6%) 810 (48.5%) (17%) 112 (6.7%) WAY FORWARD One of the major ways of addressing present accreditation efforts is the introduction of internal quality assurance mechanism which is promoted by individual institutions in which all members of the academic community recognize and accept the need to set and attain defined levels of performance and scholastic achievement in an environment of continuous monitoring and improvement. This can be achieved through: Organization of seminars and workshops to intimate academic staff with quality assurance demands. Ranking of Nigerian Universities to create competition. Establishment of technical schools to feed the University engineering programmes. i.e. one University to three technical schools to reduce the present admission problems Other measures identified by Omoregie (2008) to improve the quality of accreditation programmes are: Supervision of curriculum design, content and organization Supervision of curriculum implementation Students class attendance (register of attendance must be kept) Research shows that class attendance is proportionally tied to rate of course failures Student support, and guidance and counseling Periodic assessment of human and material resources available to each programme. 11

12 Feed back to all levels following data analysis to facilitate continuous improvement in quality. Continuous interface with external Quality Assurance agency and professional bodies to keep abreast with latest information. Track tracing of the graduates for feedback from employers. Strategies for sustainable institutional quality assurance should include getting the qualified candidates to study which is the first major step to internal quality assurance. Also, adequate staffing in quality and quantity should be encouraged. Quality Assurance Committees should be set at various levels in various institutions as follows: Central Quality Assurance Committee, Faculty Quality Assurance Committee, Departmental Quality assurance Committee and Quality Assurance Desk (Secretariat of Institutional Quality Assurance). CONCLUSION To ensure appropriate regulation of engineering education accreditation in Nigerian Institutions, it is necessary to ensure transparency, stimulates improvement and quality assurance schemes compatibility, and harmonization of all the models by the established regulating bodies. The mutual recognition of accreditation or quality assurance will also enhance mobility of students and academic staff, increase transparency in higher education and facilitate accreditation/recognition of joint programmes and other forms of trans-border education. Finally, the regulating models should incorporate the knowledge of the relevant theoretical engineering subjects and the ability to apply this knowledge effectively to engineering problems and industrial engineering practice. Also the understanding of professional and ethical responsibility through interdisciplinary knowledge coupled with the ability to apply this knowledge effectively to engineering problems. The understanding of the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context is also very necessary with the ability to work, communicate and cooperate in an international environment along with the understanding of the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context. In the same vein, impromptu schedules visitation to checkmate the projection of false expression of programmes to the visitation team as presently observed should be adopted in conjunction with scheduled ones. 12

13 REFERENCE Abah C (2008): Four Million Applicant Demand University Admission. Punch Newspaper. Accessed October 10 th 2008 Ariole V.C (2007): Ranking Nigerian Universities. http.// all Africa. Com/stores/ html. Accessed March 20 th 2009 Brusselmans. A, Greisen c Stanback, A (1998) The Future of Accreditation, Quality Assessment and Recognition of Higher Engineering education in Europe. H3E Higher Engineering Education for Europe eeig. European workshop on Accreditation of Engineering programmes Den Haag Nederland. Dustin 1 (2006): Accreditation of Engineering Education in the European context. Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (2005): Guidelines for admissions into National Diploma Programmes in Monotechnics, Polytechnic, and Nigeria Certificate in education Courses in colleges of Education. Abuja, Nigeria. Nation Board for Technical Education, NBTE (1999): Re-accreditation of Diploma Programmes offered by Polytechnics, Colleges of Agriculture and Similar tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Self study questionnaire and programme evaluation form. National Universities Commission (1999): Manual of Accreditation procedures for Academic Programmes in Nigerian Universities. National Universities Commission, Abuja. Okojie J.A (2008); Licensing Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Nigerian Universities: Achievements and Challenges. Okebukola P (2006); Keynote Address on State of Nigerian Universities. First Bank Annual Undergraduate Essay and quiz competition Award Ceremony, Lagos. Omoregie, N (2008) Quality Assurance in Nigerian University Education and Credentialing. Reference Publication Prados J, Pederson, G, Lattuca L (2005) Quality Assurance of Engineering Education through Accreditation. The Impact of Engineering Criteria 2000 and Its Global Influence. Journal of Engineering Education. Reyes, N.R, Candeas, P.V, Canadas, F. Reche. P Garcia G. (2008) Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Engineering Education Programs in the European Higher Education Area. University of Jaen, Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Polytechnic School, Linares, Jaen, Spain Surek Bordia (2001) Problems of Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Engineering Education in Developing Countries. European Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 26, issue 2, 2001 pp