Regina Otokpa 
…it’s more of title upgrading, nothing more significant
- Commission: Nigerian varsities to produce highly qualified health practitioners
- Consultant, Others: Courses upgrade is standard, practice in other climes
UPGRADE Recently, the National Universities Commission (NUC) announced a major curriculum upgrade that will change the face of delivery of medical programmes in the university system by upgrading three medicalrelated programmes to doctoral status, REGINA OTOKPA reports on why the Commission embarked the exercise
A new curriculum shift aimed at changing the face of some medicalrelated programmes in the university system has been unbundled by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
The move, it was learnt, is not unconnected with demands by curriculum and medical experts in the Nigerian University System (NUS), who had in different fora canvassed the need to have a flexible curriculum, especially for medical-related programmes in order to allow for a gradual shift to modern approaches in delivery medical programmes and award of professional certificates.
In fact, the immediate past Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Abdulrasheed Abubakar, had in early 2023, lamented that for 44 years, Nigeria had remained one of the very few countries operating a regimented approach to how its university curriculum was designed.
This concern, the NUC recalled, gave birth to the introduction and implementation of the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) initiated and introduced to the Nigerian universities by the Commission, which from took-off in September 2023 to reposition and make university education more responsive to societal needs and perform optimally.
The new Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for the Nigerian University System (NUS) now in force in the nation’s university, it was gathered, led to unbundling of some academic programmes in the system initiated a few years ago.
To develop the new Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards, 70 per cent of the total content was provided by the experts under the watch of NUC, while the remaining 30 per cent of the other contents was ceded to the individual University Senates to develop and depict the uniqueness of their various universities.
This approach or process of developing the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards was adjudged as a welcomed novel idea, which NUC strongly believe would impact positively on Nigerian universities and university education in the country.
The new Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards replaced the former Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS), which had hitherto been in use since 2007.
NUC
Conscious of the need to bridge the gap in the medical-related programmes and streamline their statuses, experts and key stakeholders in the health sector have articulated the need for a continuous bridging of the gap in the profession in line with the new trends.
This, they claimed, had become necessary in order to ensure that the professionals coming behind or younger professionals find a robust health sector that could give them the best skills and capacity to operate effectively within the country and internationally.
Part of the aim of the upgrade of the courses is to make Nigerian medical graduates more competitive
However, as part of the call for continuous modifications of the courses in line with global best practices, the NUC under the leadership of the new Executive Secretary, Prof Abdullahi Yusuf Ribadu, recently aligned with such need by setting in motion the process for upgrading of some medical-related programmes as being offered in the nation’s universities, particularly at the level of award of certificate.
In furtherance of the move to reactivate the system, the NUC last week upgraded some medical-related programmes in Nigerian universities from Bachelor’s Degree to Doctoral status for the award of qualifications, training of professionals in three fields of medical profession.
Part of the reasons for the upgrade of the courses is to ensure that Nigerian universities produce highly qualified health practitioners with international standards and competency in the affected medicalrelated fields.
Under the programme upgrade, Nigerian universities are to award Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm D), Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPT), Optometry (Doctor of Optometry), as contained in the NUC’s Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) and the new Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).
Now, under the new guideline, the Commission stated that as part of the changes, the duration of study for the affected medical programmes has been extended from four or five to six years as the new change would now accommodate additional courses and clinical training for the undergraduates.
A statement signed by NUC’s Acting Director of Public Affairs, Mrs Franca Elochi Chukwuonwo, noted that the new Doctoral status and structure of the programmes allowed for more intensive clinical practice.
Another advantage is that the programmes’ new status would provide the students with greater and better hands-on experience in their chosen fields, and again the curriculum would cover a wide range of foundational courses thereby enhancing the students’ deeper understanding of the medical concepts.
Meanwhile, part of the aim of the upgrade of the courses is to make Nigerian medical graduates more competitive on the international stage by aligning their new qualifications with global standards, as well as allow for a more thorough exploration of specific specialty areas within each medical discipline.
NUC said: “Cognizant of the need to keep abreast with global perspectives on academic programmes and courses delivery in the university education space, the NUC had carried out some nomenclature change and upgraded programmes from Bachelor’s Degree to Doctoral Degree with clinical sessions and status in Nigerian universities.
“This quest to upgrade the status of some medical-related programmes from Bachelor’s Degree to Doctor (Bachelor’s Degree with clinical sessions) was borne out of the desire to incorporate more clinical/practical sessions, provide sufficient coverage of foundation courses, improve on clinical skills and cover all specialty medical areas.
“The trend seeks to also align with global best practices applicable in the training of professionals in these medical-related programmes.
Furthermore, the certificates obtained at the end of the courses from the Nigerian University System would be at par with those obtained in similar programmes from other climes.
“This will ensure the requisite harmonisation, mutuality and global competitiveness of Nigerian graduates in terms of certificate evaluation, qualification, employability and further studies in the relevant disciplines.”
Stakeholders
But, stakeholders, who are divided over the Commission’s action to upgrade and calibrate the courses, have also expressed anxiety over the ill-feelings the change in the qualification status might bring about.
Despite that some stakeholders lauded that upgrade or curriculum reorganisation as it affects the threemedical programmes in our universities, in view of the need to repositioning the medical programmes, they challenged NUC on the need to address the emerging would-be implications that this may generate between old and fresh graduates in the job placement, professional practice or and workplace.
Curiously, some stakeholders argued that the upgrade might generate controversies and illfeelings, as well as raise some fundamental questions in the system.
Part of their fears, is that the upgrade would invariably place the fresh graduates with Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm D); Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPT), Optometry (Doctor of Optometry), above older graduates, who hold B.Sc Pharmacy, B.Scs Physiotherapy and B.Sc Optometry, especially in the workplace.
To rearticulate the system, they however called for a conversion programme, or mop up or shortterm courses or training for old graduates of the medical courses in order to further equip them for the new challenges and raise their qualification status.
They stated that going by Nigeria’s experience where paper qualifications and titles are more celebrated than skills or competence, they envisage a situation where old graduates that should mentor to the fresh graduates but for holding B.Sc qualifications would be rated below due to their status or title than the fresh graduates.
“The National Universities Commission should think about how to address some of these contending issues as they likely come into the open when the products of the upgraded system are being churned out of the university system.
“Also, the Commission should be more proactive and specific as to when the curriculum upgrade will commence in the universities, and what would be their entry point into civil service, or in job placement,” they argued.
However, while speaking on the development, a Consultant Public Health Physician, Prof Akinsanya Osibogun of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL) described the course upgrade as a welcome development.
According to him, based on current trends, there must be a way to encourage research in clinical sciences by professionals that go under the cover of health science to be allowed to make publications from their research that are capable of bringing about solutions to the revolutionary health issues on health.
Therefore, Osibogun noted that it had also been discovered that there is a strong connection and relationship between PhD and quality service delivery in every sector, particularly health sector, even as he noted that researchers should be awarded a doctorate degree based on quality publications from research made in any specific core clinical area.
Also, on his part, a Consultant Physician and Medical Director, ASCL Medical Centre, Ajaokuta in Kogi State, Dr Usman Abdulrahman, noted that the upgrade of the medical programmes from Bachelor Degree to Doctoral status was the standard and practice in other parts of the world.
But, with the upgrade of the medical courses, Abdulrahman, however, insisted that the implications of the upgrade were not too clear from the NUC’s pronouncement.
According to him, the upgrading of the qualification status of the three medical courses from Bachelor Degrees to Doctorate Degrees would probably affect the entry point of holders of these medical personnel in the civil service at the level of job placement.
He stated: “That is the standard and practice elsewhere in the world. Their professional certificate status is supposed to be Doctor. In fact, I think the National Universities Commission is trying to align with the global best practices.
“Probably it might affect their entry points into the civil service; as the holders of the new qualifications may get a step higher at entry point from what it used to be before.
The implication of the upgrade was not too clear right from the NUC’s announcement.” Meanwhile, a graduate of Pharmacy and Pharmacist by practice, who craved anonymity, however, insisted that the upgrade of the courses was long overdue, adding that it was the standard practice all over the world.
The pharmacist, who argued that the profession was also as important and critical as medical doctors, said that “pharmacists are sometimes even better than the doctors when it comes to prescription of drugs for the treatment of ailments.” “We have witnessed several instances where pharmacists have to change the drug prescriptions given by doctors for the safety concern of their patients.
“So, we should bear the same title or qualification since or because our jobs are complementary to each other. The fact remains that Doctors cannot do without Pharmacists, and Pharmacists cannot do without Doctors, to an extent, in our professional practice,” he stated.
Again, an Optometrist, Dr Charles Azubike, who wondered what the NUC was up to, however, noted that graduates of Optometry, as professionals, have always been operating on a doctoral status.
He said: “Optometrists have been bearing Doctor all this while. Although I cannot say for Physiotherapists; I do not know if they have been bearing Doctor as their title.
“At the end of the day it is just a title thing because they will not be collecting the same salary as medical doctors, and the quality allowances cannot also be the same. It is just more of upgrading the title, and nothing more significant.”
However, shedding more light into the issue, a Pharmacist and University of Lagos (UNILAG) graduate, Mr Omotunde Osamuyide, said that concerning the Pharmacy profession, Pharmacists operate with license and not degree certificate.
Speaking further, he added that Doctor of Pharmacy is purely academic; saying a MSc or PhD holder in any of the specialisations under Pharmacy will be above someone having only B.Pharm qualification if employed at the same time and in the organisation.
“Already, if you have MSc or PhD in any of the specialisations under Pharmacy, you will be placed above someone that holds only B.Pharm if you are employed at the same time. In fact, PhD in Pharmaceutics or Pharmacognosy or Clinical Pharmacy is above Doctor of Pharmacy,” he stated.
