The House of Representatives has called on the National Universities Commission to regulate the role of visiting lecturers in Nigerian universities.
This followed a motion on Wednesday sponsored by Abbas Tajudeen (Kaduna APC).
Arguing the motion, Mr. Tajudeen stated that many universities, especially state-owned and private ones, rely too much on the services of either visiting or sabbatical lecturers.
“This reliance poses a great challenge to quality of services rendered by the lecturers with regards to mentoring, research, publication of journals and the general academic wellbeing in the universities,” he said.
Mr. Tajudeen said he was concerned that the situation affects the quality of education being provided owing to the fact that lecturers usually abandon their duties in their places of primary employment and spread their services thinly across other universities that they visit.
“The activities of those visiting lecturers are not regulated by any supervisory or academic body, either to ensure compliance with their terms of engagement or limit the number of commitments they engage in to ensure quality education in Nigeria,” the lawmaker added.
Contributing to the debate, Nicholas Ossai (Delta-PDP) however expressed a contrary view, stating that visiting lectureship is a universal practice and that lecturers use the medium to develop themselves and the students.
“It does not make sense for us to prohibit what is acceptable internationally,” Mr. Ossai said.
But when the motion was put to vote, it was accepted by the majority of the house.
The speaker thus mandated the committee on Tertiary Education and Services to interface with the National Universities Commission and other relevant agencies concerned with tertiary education with a view to formulating policies to aid the regulation and supervision of the practice of visiting lectureship in Nigeria and report back within eight weeks for further legislative action.
