At least 100 fake professors have been uncovered by the National Universities Commission (NUC) .
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed who revealed this, said that about 100 fake professors’ details were posted on the NUC website and the commission had to send the names to the various universities for verification. This is contained a recent bulletin of NUC.
He disclosed this at the 2019 retreats for Vice-Chancellors and thanked them for their cooperation with the NUC Strategy Advisory Committee (STRADVCOM) which had published, among other things, directory of full professors in the Nigeria University System (NUS); statistical Digest of the NUS 2017-2018; refinement and modernisation of instruments for accreditation of undergraduate, postgraduate, part-time, affiliate, open and distance learning programmes and institutional as well as state of university education in Nigeria 2017- 2018.
The NUC boss said that the updated version of those documents would be published by December 2019 and that professors in their respective universities uploaded their curricula vitae on the website which was used in the compilation of the directory of full professors in the NUS and had helped in identifying fake professors in the system.
He encouraged the vice-chancellors to have accurate statistics of staff, students and other components in their respective universities off-hand. He applauded them for ensuring that institutions, as he also cautioned them to be mindful while signing certificates of students especially those of affiliate institutions under their purview.
Rasheed stressed that the fight against fake professors was a collective responsibility. The executive secretary informed the Vice-Chancellors of a recent meeting held with the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) where the latter complained that some Corp members’ degree certificates purportedly obtained from some prestigious universities were questionable.
The NUC boss directed that the vice-chancellors should check the excesses of their affiliated institutions, noting that lecturers hardly spend time with their students and argued that Ph.D. supervisions had lacked the necessary quality time required and desired as both the lecturers and students did not create time for each other.
He called on universities to spearhead the fight against academic corruption which must be tackled by all stakeholders, appealing that universities should also inform the commission on any criminal case in their institutions.
Prof Rasheed also clarified that lecturers were not permitted to teach in more than two universities, while minimum teaching for eight hours should be enforced and the practice where lecturers move from three to four universities must stop.
