The return of sandwich programmes

In a move which is bound to assist the nation in realising the much-touted Millennium Development Goals, now christened Sustainable Development Goals, the National Universities Commission (NUC) recently granted approvals to 39 universities in the country to run part-time and sandwich programmes after three years of moratorium.

According to the commission, the approval  was sequel to the affected universities complying with the laid-down guidelines for running part-time programmes and sandwich courses in Nigerian universities.  In 2012, the commission had placed a moratorium on admission into part-time programmes in universities.

It requested the universities to fully disclose all part-time and sandwich programmes, with respect to enrolment and staff profile, and to conduct in-house staff and students audit and forward same to the commission.

As reported in most national dailies, the NUC said that for a programme to be eligible to run on a part-time basis, the approved full-time equivalent must be available in the university, must have earned full accreditation, and must be run within approved campuses. The minimum duration of the part-time programmes must be 150 per cent of the approved duration of the full-time equivalent, while approval would not be granted for part-time programmes in Environmental Sciences, Engineering/Technology, Law, Medicine/Medical Sciences, Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dentistry and Veterinary Science.

For decades, the sandwich programmes had enabled teachers to continue their education while still retaining their jobs. As family men and women, it was envisaged that the participants would be taught courses in selected months of the year. Those on the sandwich programmes, unlike the regular undergraduates, are expected to be mature individuals who can bring their classroom experiences into their assignments, in the buildup to their certification with first degrees in education and their preferred courses of specialisation. In this regard, the NUC must be commended for bringing back the programme, so that opportunities can continue to be given to teachers in the primary schools to upgrade their academic profiles.

More important, the NUC deserves commendation for insisting on standards and paradigms for the programmes. It would, however, need to go beyond mere rhetoric and ensure that the lofty standards expected of the programmes are maintained by all the certified universities taking part in the programme.

The universities must, on their own part, ensure that the sandwich programmes achieve the objectives expected of them.

They must ensure that they are not turned into money-making machines, like the recently proscribed post-UTME examinations.

Sunday Adeniji

Lagos.