Allow polytechnics award degrees and masters, ASUP tells FG

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has written the federal government, seeking the empowerment of polytechnics to award bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees.

NAN reports that the union said the empowerment would help put an end to the agelong BSc-HND dichotomy in Nigeria.

Anderson Ezeibe, ASUP’s national president, spoke in Kaduna at an award presentation marking the transition of Shehu Idris College of Health Sciences and Technology, Makarfi (SICHSTM) into Kaduna State University (KASU).

Ezeibe said there is a need to ensure the full utilisation of the technical equipment in workshops, laboratories, and other facilities in Nigeria’s public polytechnics that remained underutilised due to the lean student population.

He said HND is no longer as attractive because of the dichotomy that needs to be eliminated.

“Policymakers have made it a rule that once an individual has an HND, he/she cannot attain the peak of his/her career. Then why are they continuing to force it on people?” the national president asked.

“Why don’t they phase it out and replace it with a bachelor of technology?”

Ezeibe said the polytechnic system has the infrastructure and human capital to award bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees in the areas of technology.

“In Europe, Germany, the UK, America, and all parts of the world, polytechnics are not limited to middle-level manpower.

“In the new polytechnic act, they are empowered to produce higher level manpower without limit. As we speak, many polytechnics are producing degree holders but in affiliation.

“They are doing it with their own infrastructure and staff. Why can’t they do it in name of their institution?

“We have recently submitted a position paper to the federal government on the need to transition from the award of HND to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees in technology with the Nigeria polytechnic system.”

Nasir El-Rufa’i, Kaduna state governor, merged SICHSTM with KASU to make it a degree-awarding institution.

Ezeibe said, with the transition, SICHST is no longer a member of ASUP, but of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).