African varsities must update programmes to succeed in 21st Century – NUC

Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Chris Maiyaki has said that to ensure graduates of the African continent are fully equipped with the required skills and knowledge to succeed in the 21st century; universities must strive to improve and update educational programmes in consonance with the realities of global best practices.

Maiyaki, who stated this at the 3rd Annual Conference of the Forum for Innovation in African Universities (FIAU) with the theme, “Strengthening Africa’s Higher Education in a post-COVID-19 world”, said higher education must shift to offer every student opportunities for the continuous refinement of the skills needed for employment in a competitive world.

He said by cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset among students, they hope to foster a culture of innovation, creativity, and problem-solving that will drive economic growth and social development.

According to him, the Commission, as part of its efforts to reposition the Nigerian University System for excellence and global competitiveness, launched the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for the 17 disciplines, with emphasis on the acquisition of 21st Century employability and entrepreneurial skills.

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“The re-engineered curriculum also seeks to create this mindset in Nigerian graduates by ensuring that for each programme offered in any Nigerian university, there is a programme-specific entrepreneurship course that will be compulsory and obligatory,” he said.

He, however, urged the forum to continue to harness the potential of technology to enhance teaching methodologies and equip their students with the digital skills necessary for the future of work.

The Vice Chancellor of Bingham University, Karu, and Co-Chairman of FIAU, Prof. Williams Qurix, said the forum tries to project development models that bother on partnerships on the use of 21st Century skills and centres on entrepreneurship to generally strengthen higher education in Africa.

While noting that the forum was conceived in Europe and the first two conferences held in the UK, he said the Nigerian delegation realised there was need to drive the agenda home and that the point is African universities must arise and begin to teach entrepreneurship in a way that they can become the creative fulcrum on which Africa will develop.