The Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE) last Tuesday, 7th May, 2024, hosted the 4th edition of its Public Forum on Engineering Education at the National Universities Commission (NUC) Idris Abdulkdair Auditorium, Abuja.
In his goodwill message at the Forum, the Acting Executive Secretary, who extended the NUC’s felicitation with the Engineering body noted that as the world transit into the 4th Industrial Revolution, the Engineering profession had a critical role to play, expressing the hope that engineering education would pilot the way.
According to him, the 4th Industrial Revolution would be characterized by the fusion of technologies that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres. This, he said, would transform the way people live, work and interact.
He said as the world navigated through the complexities of the modern world, the nation was in dire need of a robust and dynamic engineering education.
He acknowledged that the Academy’s engagement and deliberations at the Forum would provide a significant platform for thoughtful ideas, invaluable insights and strategies needed to chart a new course towards sustainable development in Nigeria.
He said that in the new journey, the NUC was fully prepared to join the Nigerian Academy of Engineering in partnership and collaborative efforts, with NUC serving as the foremost government agency tasked with overseeing the strategic orderly development of University education in Nigeria.
He reminded the Forum that the Commission was mandated by law, to set and implement Minimum Academic Standards in the Nigerian University System (NUS), with its other functions including the accreditation of academic programmes, resource verification for new programmes, undertaking inspection and monitoring visits to Universities and other approved degree-awarding Institutions, and processing licences for the establishment of Private Universities.
On the strength of this, he noted that the NUC could in collaboration with the Academy, cultivate a learning environment that nurtured creativity, fostered critical thinking, and equipped the country’s future engineers with the skills and knowledge necessary to tackle emerging challenges as well as drive sustainable development.
He highlighted that in an effort to improve on the programmes and learning environment of Nigerian Universities, the Commission had already embarked on the development of the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) from the former Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS).
He stated that the review aimed at fostering an environment that, not only encouraged innovations, but also cultivated critical thinking and scholarly excellence among students.
The CCMAS, the Acting Executive Secretary said presented a framework wherein 70 per cent of each programme content was introduced, allowing Universities the flexibility to tailor the remaining 30 per cent to their specific needs, noting that its implementation commenced in the 2023/2024 Academic Session.
He told the gathering that, as part of NUC’s efforts to improve on the quality of education in Nigeria, it had finalized guidelines on Transnational Education (TNE), thereby opening doors for foreign educational institutions to participate in Nigeria’s University education landscape.
He added that the new standards being laid out by the Commission was intended to serve as a guiding light towards a future where the quality of teaching, learning, and research in Nigerian Universities would stand out unrivalled.
Mr. Maiyaki commended the NAE for its unwavering commitment to advancing engineering excellence and promoting lifelong learning, through this Public Forum, the 4th of which was being held today.
He underscored the importance of the Forum which created an opportunity for key stakeholders to interact and share ideas on contemporary engineering issues.
He applauded the NAE, noting that through its Forum, the Academy had re-affirmed its dedication to the pursuit of excellence in engineering education and assured them that NUC would work together with it to empower the next generation of engineers to become catalysts for positive change, driving innovations and shaping a better tomorrow for the nation and the larger world.
In his address, the President of the NAE, Engr. Professor Azikiwe Peter Onwualu noted that in the 13 thematic priority areas crafted by the Honourable Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, OON and his team in the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), the Academy had a responsibility to contribute some ideas towards effective implementation of the roadmap.
This, he said, was germane as the Academy believed that if Nigeria get Engineering and technology right, all other sectors would have been taken care of.
He affirmed that whether it be agriculture, water resources, power, energy, oil and gas, health, transportation, communications, blue economy, trade, commerce, industry and manufacturing, their successful development depended on the availability of engineering and technological ideas, tools and processes, equipment, skills among others, that were required to build facilities and machinery and maintain them for optimum provision of goods and services for the economy.
He, therefore, said, education and training of engineers, technologists, technicians, artisans, that drove the economy should receive special attention as that would ensure Nigeria had the right personnel to drive the fourth industrial revolution.
He decried the current state of Engineering Education in Nigeria, declaring that many scholars and practitioners, especially people from the productive sector of the economy have identified many challenges.
These, he mentioned, included the theoretical nature of the teaching and learning, engineering graduates that were not ready for industry, inadequate laboratories and workshops, poorly executed industrial training (SWEP and SIWES), poor curriculum, high unemployment rate for engineers, among others.
He, however, said, they were not in the Public Forum to catalogue the challenges, but to provide innovative and sustainable solutions that included: Outcome Based Engineering Education by Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN); CCMAS coordinated by NUC; Project Based Learning; Upgrading of Engineering Laboratories and Workshops; Skills in Higher Education; Supervised Industrial Training Scheme in Engineering (SITSIE); Engineering Finishing Schools; Promotion of start-ups and technology business incubation centres; Innovation hubs and maker spaces; Engineering based innovation hubs; Local content development in oil an gas sector; Promotion of development and deployment of engineering infrastructure.
He said the essence of the Forum was for Engineers in the education sector to rub minds and bring up initiatives that would lead to positive change in engineering education for which experienced resource persons were chosen based on their track records to provide a sector-based road map.
The NAE President expressed hope that the ideas and resolutions that would come out from the forum would provide major inputs for policy formulation, policy adjustment and more importantly policy implementation guidelines for the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) involved in engineering education.
He said the Academy was willing to advise government on the right steps to take and believed strongly that with Nigeria prioitising and using Engineering and Technology to drive development in all sectors simultaneously, the country would in a short time join the league of developed nations that has the capabilities to solve problems in its food and agriculture, healthcare, communications, transportation, energy and power, commerce and industry, among others.
The Forum later went into technical and plenary sessions with papers presentations entitled: “Towards Effective and Integrated Engineering Education and Training for Sustainable Development; Global Perspectives and Best Practices,” by Engr. Professors O.A Olatunbon and M.H Muhammad; “The Future of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET),” by Dr. M.N Yakubu and the “Imperative of the Triple Helix of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)-Industry-Government and Entrepreneurship in the Development of Innovation Hubs and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Nigeria,” by Engr. Professors Joseph A. Ajienka and Michael O. Faborode.