19 CHALLENGES AND MERITS OF VARIATIONS IN DEGREE NOMENCLATURE AND CURRICULUM CONTENT IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY EDUCATION N. A. Nwankwor Mohammed Adamu Auta Department of Technology Education, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola Adamawa State, Nigeria Abstract In Nigerian, the National Universities Commission (NUC) is responsible for the maintenance of quality and standards of all academic programmes in the universities. The NUC performs this task through the issuance of Benchmark for Academic Standards (BMAS) to the institutions and conducts periodic accreditation exercises for an on-the-spot assessment of facilities available to run such programmes. This notwithstanding, Nigerian universities enjoy a degree of autonomy with regards to the curriculum content and the degree title for their respective programmes. This freedom is not peculiar to Nigeria, but in the other countries with such academic freedom there is a clearly defined criterion on how degrees should be titled from the regulators. In Nigeria, these variations in titles and content pose some challenges in the areas of programme offering and ambiguity in names of similar discipline, non-uniformity in skills acquired among others. On the other hand these variations have the merit of multi-disciplinary exposure which enhances university academic autonomy. It is therefore recommended among others that; NUC should establish a criterion for degree Titles/Nomenclature and ensure that it is strictly followed by the universities; All programmes incorporating both, Teaching Practice(TP) and Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme(SIWES) exercises as part of the requirements for graduation should be made to last for five years so as to avoid the current seeming short-falls being experienced in those programmes; The curriculum content of all programmes in Nigerian universities should put into consideration the societal milieu in addition to complying with the Benchmark for Academic Standards(BMAS). Key Words: Degree Nomenclature; Curriculum Variation; Merits and Challenges Introduction Quality education is accepted as one of the major determinants of the future of Nigeria and its citizens. This belief makes it therefore imperative that our educational system including its academic structure, content and modalities must be fine-tuned to respond to the current changes confronting our nation. The 21st Century knowledge-based economy further makes it inevitable for all higher education institutions to bend-back and look inwards for a more robust, dynamic and effective curriculum that would respond to the economic and current technological changes within the society. Such demands go beyond the general definition of curriculum as the contents of a subject, concepts and tasks to be acquired, planned activities, the desired learning outcomes and experiences, product of culture and an agenda to reform society (Tricia, 2010). This is so because Nigeria’s educational system in facing a major challenge of relevance. It is therefore required that efforts are made by the universities, as a major segment in the country’s higher education system, to bridge the gap between how students live and how they learn (Len, 2014). Nigerian universities are therefore expected to keep pace with the astonishing rate of social and economic demands on students’ lives after graduation in line with the benchmark issued by the National Universities Commission (NUC) guidelines. 174 Vunoklang Multidisciplinary Journal of Science & Technology Education, 5 ARTICLE 19 Challenges and Merits of Variations in Degree Nomenclature and Curriculum Content in Nigerian Tertiary Education Established in 1962 the National Universities Commission (NUC) was as an advisory agency in the then Cabinet Office of the Federal Government. By 1994 it translated into a statutory body charged with the responsibilities of granting approval for the establishment and accreditation of all higher education institutions offering degree programmes in Nigeria. It has the primary mandate of ensuring quality in all academic programmes in Nigerian Universities and other degree awarding institutions (Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, 2011). This is achieved through the conduct of periodic accreditation exercise with a focus on such areas as academic briefs, master plan implementation, institutional management and governance, students to staff ratio, staff quality and mix, teaching and research quality, infrastructural input and other issues pertinent to quality assurance (FGN, 2011). In the arrangement the Nigerian universities enjoyed some degree of academic autonomy with regards to the curriculum content of their respective programmes, while the National Universities Commission has the primary role of regulating such academic programmes. As clearly indicated in the preliminary chapter of the NUC’s Benchmark Minimum Academic Standard (BMAS), each university should be free to decide the title of the degree to be awarded... and the Benchmark for Academic Standards (BMAS) recognizes the autonomy of individual Universities with regards to the academic programmes, but only seeks to ensure that minimum requirements for graduation are set and met” (Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, 2011). So far, the implementation of this “concession” cannot be considered as a “smooth ride” in the face of the obvious challenges confronting the products of the various academic programmes. In some cases, at higher degree programmes, graduates with the same degree titles but from different universities, have been found not to be at par with their colleagues in some key components of their studies at the postgraduate levels. At work places graduates whose degree titles suggest greater emphasis on the technical and technological components of their studies have been found to be strong only in the area of pedagogy. This paper is therefore an advocacy for quality building capacity from the challenges and merits of variations in degree nomenclature and curriculum content in Nigerian tertiary education programmes. Degree Nomenclature and Curriculum Content Nigerian universities enjoy some degree of autonomy with regards to the curriculum content of their respective programmes as observed in the introductory segment of this paper,. What the National Universities Commission (NUC) does basically, is to regulate the academic programmes in accordance with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s philosophy of freedom of choice given to the universities to decide the title of the degree to be awarded. The NUC’s Benchmark for Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) clearly recognizes the autonomy of individual Universities with regards to the academic programmes, (FGN, 2011). The mandate of NUC clearly is to seek to ensure that minimum requirements for graduation are set and met. But the question begging for an answer is How well have the universities managed the “freedom” given to them by the regulators? According to Auta (2017) there is a strong relationship between the degree nomenclature and the material content of the curriculum of Nigerian tertiary institutions. Using the Technology Education programme as a casestudy, Auta’s findings indicated that the difference in the titles and course duration have a direct correlation with the material content of the curriculum. For instance, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi which awards the Bachelor of Technology in Education [B. Tech.(Educ)] degree has a near 50-50 balance in Pedagogy and Professional Technology Education (PTE) components of their programmes, while at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), whose Industrial Technical Education was originally founded by the Ford Foundation, USA in 1962, but have undergone several reviews and updates, there is a close resemblance in curriculum content and degree nomenclature with that of Bayero University, Kano programme. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka which awards a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technical Education [B. Sc.(Ind. Tech. Educ.)] has its present curriculum weighted 175 Vunoklang Multidisciplinary Journal of Science & Technology Education, 5 Nwankwor & Auta approximately 60/40 between Professional Technical Education courses and Pedagogy with General Education/Basic Science courses, (Auta, 2017). At Bayero University Kano, which awards a Bachelor of Science in Education [B. Sc.(Educ.)] degree, the curriculum is weighted towards education, the basic sciences and mathematics with less emphasis on the PTE and the fields of specializations, (Auta, 2017). However, at Modibbo Adama Universities of Technology, Yola and Federal University of Technology, Minna which award the Bachelor of Technology in Technology Education [B. Tech. (Educ.)], their curricula have low emphasis on the education courses with a high tilt towards Professional Technology Education courses and Fields of Specializations. This shows that the programmes are not only different in the degree titles but in the material content as well. The variation in the degree nomenclature and the curriculum content is not peculiar to Nigeria. Several universities in other countries allow some amount of flexibility with regards to the curriculum content of their programmes in line with the individual philosophy of the universities, (College Atlas, 2017). However, unlike what is obtained here in Nigeria, where universities are allowed to determine how to title their respective degrees without a uniform guide from the regulators, in the United States, Canada and many European countries there is a clear guideline on course duration and degree nomenclature (College Atlas, 2017). In Pakistan for instance, the National Qualification Framework of Pakistan establishes the criteria to be complied with for degree titles/nomenclature, (College Atlas, 2015). These include: 1. The degree may be termed/named as per the level along with respective major field of study/discipline, not stream/specialization. 2. A programme containing only one area may be termed as per its respective area of concentration, for example, Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Economics 3. A programme with specialization in at least 25 percent of the main field, the specialization may be indicated in Brackets Example: BS in Computer Science (Programming), Bachelors in Electrical Engineering (Telecommunication). 4. A programme that contains fundamental components of two fields of study with the percentage of 50-50, the qualification may be connected with “AND” Example: BS in Economics and Political Science, BS in Physics and Mathematics and so on. 5. A major-minor programme that contains at least 25 percent component in other fields of study is named using the connector “WITH” Example: BS in Economics with Mathematics. Interestingly, another aspect of the relationship between the degree nomenclature and the curriculum content is the number of years required for graduation. While all the universities in Nigeria that award the Bachelor of Technology degree (mostly universities of technology) structure their programmes to last for 5 years, others, particularly, the conventional universities running similar programmes have 4 years as the minimum duration for the programme (Auta, 2017) with a variation in degree titles. Regardless of the nomenclature used and the level of adequacy and relevance of the material content of the curriculum and its compliance with the BMAS, Ughamadu (1994) identified the following key attributes that a well-planned and developed curriculum is expected to possessed: 1. It should reflect the society’s past and present life, including the future life expectation; as it is based on the society’s past and present life, that curriculum is planned for its foreseeable future life. 2. Reflect the societal and cultural milieu of the society in which the programme is expected to service. Therefore, it has to relate to the general aspects of the culture in addition to its special and unique characteristics. 3. Reflect the skills, ideals, habits, value patterns and other aspects of life of a given society that the institution is expected to transmit to the young learners. 4. Reflect the learner’s interest, needs, capabilities, other physical and 176 ARTICLE 19 Challenges and Merits of Variations in Degree Nomenclature and Curriculum Content in Nigerian Tertiary Education psychological characteristics and the way they learn. It is therefore evident, that the above mentioned attributes are indispensable ingredients for a well-planned and developed curriculum to succeed. This is without prejudice to other key components which are outside the scope of this paper. Merits in Degree Nomenclature and Curriculum Content Variations In spite of the seemingly obvious facts that variation in degree nomenclature and curriculum content in Nigerian universities is posing some serious challenges there are still some merits in these variations and these include: 1. Multidisciplinary Exposure: Variations in the degree nomenclature and its curriculum content exposes the individual candidates to have some amount of knowledge across several disciplines which may be utilized in the course of his/her day to day activities or in solving a specific problem. After all it is usually said that “No knowledge is a waste”. For instance considering the level of shortage of qualified teachers in key basic science subjects in Nigerian secondary schools, a graduate possessing a B.Sc.(Ed.) in Technology Education should be able to teach basic sciences and mathematics because the curriculum content he was exposed to while in school had placed much emphasis on the basic sciences and mathematics (Auta, 2017). This gives such programmes an important utility value. 2. Upholding the Universities Autonomy: The 1997 UNESCO recommendation concerning Higher-Education teaching personnel as reported by Babalola (2014) defined university autonomy as “the degree of self-governance necessary for effective decision making by institutions of higher education regarding their academic work, standards, management and related activities…”(p.72), therefore, by varying the degree nomenclature and the curriculum content, universities would have fulfilled part of the preconditions to guarantee the proper fulfillment of the functions entrusted to higher education institutions. That has been part of the unending demand of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has led to several industrial disputes. Challenges of Degree Nomenclature and Curriculum Content Variations Though, it is not unlawful for Nigerian universities to determine how best to title their degree programmes (FGN, 2011), a careful look at the issue of variations in degree nomenclature and curriculum content raises some critical issues that need to be identified and discussed here: 1. Ambiguity: The variation in the nomenclature raises issues of ambiguity. To buttress this claim, the recent fracas in the Nigerian Senate is worth recalling. In the Senate saga there was a purported case of certificated forgery against a member of the upper legislative chamber of the national assembly (Senate). Part of the argument ignorantly advanced to give credibility to the allegation at a glance was that, a degree in Geography can’t be termed Bachelor of Arts (B.A), rather it should be termed, Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.). According to the proponents of that thesis, most (some even said all) of the universities use the B.Sc. as the title of their degrees in Geography, so having a certificate bearing B.A Geography is akin to forged certificate. Others even went further to demonstrate that in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where the lawmaker claimed to have graduated, Geography was under the Faculty of Sciences, so by default the degree to be awarded should be “B.Sc.”. Unknown to those within that group, universities of technology use the B.Tech. title for their Geography programmes, and the programme is usually domiciled in the School/Faculty of Environmental Science/Technology (Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, 2016). The Vice-Chancellor of the University had to be embarrassingly summoned to testify before a Senate committee on the veracity of the lawmakers claim that he had indeed acquired that qualification (Sambo, 2017). 177 Vunoklang Multidisciplinary Journal of Science & Technology Education, 5 Nwankwor & Auta This is just one of the many challenges confronting the variation in degree nomenclature in Nigerian tertiary institutions. From the above narration, one can see what ambiguity with respect to degree nomenclature can lead to, because if the title was made uniform or a criterion was established by the regulators as obtained in other parts of the world, this avoidable debate would not have come up in the first place. 2. Non-uniformity in Skills Acquisition: The challenge of variation in the curriculum content raises a serious concern over the uniformity of the skills acquired in the course of the training across the universities since they are expected to render their services after graduation to the same society. While some universities would have strong emphasis towards a certain aspect of a programme (for example, as mentioned earlier, at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi which awards a B. Tech.(Educ) degree the curriculum has a near 50-50 balance in the Pedagogy and Professional Technology Education (PTE) components of their programmes, while at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), which awards a B. Sc. In Industrial Technical Education the present curriculum is weighted approximately 60-40 between PTE courses and Pedagogy with General Education/Basic Science courses, (Nwankwor, 2012). At Bayero University Kano, with the same B. Sc. in Education degree, the curriculum is weighted towards education, the basic sciences and mathematics with less emphasis on the PTE and the fields of specializations, (Auta, 2017), others would put little emphasis on that same aspect, as a result, a potential employer may be in a dilemma on which of the programmes [B.Ed.(Tech); B.Tech(Educ.), B.Sc.(Educ) and B. Sc.(Ind. Tech. Educ.)], should be the most preferred in terms of employment since he may not be privileged to have the curriculum of the respective programmes for evaluation. 3. Manpower Challenge: The manpower obtained in the academic departments of respective tertiary institutions are trained from different universities with varying degree nomenclature and curriculum content. Let’s take technology education programme for instance, some universities award B.Sc.(Ed) degrees while some award B.Ed., others award B.Tech.(Ed) and still others B. Ed(Tech), which in effect indicates their respective areas of emphasis (Auta, 2017). Therefore, bringing people with these degrees together to run a particular common programme of advanced studies may pose a challenge of synchronizing their diverse background and experience towards effective development of the curriculum or its implementation in case of a new programme or an already existing one respectively. 4. Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) and Teaching Practice: The variations in the number of years required for graduation pose a challenge on students studying programmes which require them to undergo both the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) as well as the Teaching Practice (TP). In the 5 year programme, this challenge is subdued, because the fourth year is usually dedicated for the two exercises (SIWES & TP) shared alternately on the two semesters that make up the level. However, under the 4 years duration, students are forced to run both their final year classes as well as the SIWES/TP exercise concurrently. The students usually have a divided attention and lose concentration on the two exercises (Ibrahim, 2017). In effect, the objectives of the two exercises would not be fully achieved, and this challenge would invariably affect the quality of the programme since the “displaced” students are at the center of the programme. Conclusion In Nigeria, for education to continue to be identified as one of the major determinants of the future of the country and its citizens, the curriculum as the vehicle to achieve this noble objective must continue to set out and define the in-depth of the knowledge to be acquired in a programme. The NUC as the agency charged with the responsibilities of supervising all academic programmes must continue to perform that task of quality assurance through her 178 ARTICLE 19 Challenges and Merits of Variations in Degree Nomenclature and Curriculum Content in Nigerian Tertiary Education issuance of BMAS to institutions and their periodic accreditation exercises for an on-thespot assessment of facilities available and programme offerings. The universities must continue to enjoy some degree of autonomy with regards to their curriculum content and the degree title of their respective programmes, because such freedom is not peculiar to Nigeria but it’s obtained across the globe. This freedom should, however be exercised within a clearly defined criterion on how degrees should be titled from the regulators. This is necessary to guide all the stakeholders - the students in their choice of course programmes, the institutions to be better focused in their programme offerings and the end users (employers of labour) to be better guided in their choice of fresh recruits in relation to their needs. Recommendations In spite of the merits of multi-disciplinary exposure and the enhancement of university autonomy the presentations so far, clearly shows that variations in titles and content pose some challenges particularly in the areas of ambiguity of the programme content/title, non-uniformity in the skills acquired, SIWES/TP exercises among others. There is therefore need for a second look at the way and manner these variations in both degree nomenclature and the curriculum content are managed in Nigerian universities. This will ensure that the graduates would not continue to face challenges which at the end would affect their performance in their various fields of work. It is on this basis that the following recommendations are made: 1. The NUC should establish a criterion for degree Titles/Nomenclature in line with the curriculum content and ensure that it is strictly followed by the universities. 2. All programmes incorporating both TP and SIWES as part of the requirements for graduation should be made to last for five years so as to avoid the current problems being experienced by those running their programmes in conventional universities. 3. The curriculum content of all degree programmes in Nigeria, should put into consideration the societal milieu in addition to complying with the BMAS. References Auta, M. A. (2017). Adequacy of technology education programmes in Nigerian universities in preparing students for the acquisition of requisite employment skills. Unpublished M.Tech Thesis, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola. Babalola, A. (2014). University autonomy and good governance. 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