Politics of Programme Accreditation Practices in Nigerian Universities: Implications for Quality Assurance

Accreditation is carried out to ensure that universities meet acceptable standards of quality in its programme offerings. This paper, which examined politics of National Universities Commission programme accreditation practices used descriptive survey design. The research covered universities in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, Nigeria. Three research questions were raised to enhance the study. Purposive sampling technique was utilized to raise a sample of 85 current and former Heads of Departments for the study. A 21 - item instrument titled " Politics of Accreditation Practices Questionnaire (PAPQ)" was drawn, validated and tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha. The index of reliability was 0.84 which indicated the fitness of the instrument for use. Data derived from the instrument were analyzed using means and standard deviation. Findings indicated that politics has been part of programme accreditation practices. Aspects of politics of accreditation identified were: politics of funding, borrowed books to boost library stock, borrowed facilities, window dressing of facilities, among others. The major challenges to programme accreditation as identified by the respondents were inadequate funding, inadequate and obsolete facilities and too much paper documentation. Suggestions to remedy the challenges to accreditation included that adequate funds should be made available to universities and internal mechanism for quality assurance should be strengthened within the universities. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2017.v7n2p7