The National Universities Commission on Monday introduced a new Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for all Nigerian Universities.
The CCMAS has 17 disciplines and 238 academic programmes to replace the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standard (BMAS).
Also, the Federal Government approved three new courses in the university system, namely Allied Health Sciences, Architecture and Communication, and Menial studies.
Speaking on the CCMAS at NUC’s celebration of 60 years of regulating university education in Nigeria, NUC Executive Secretary, Prof Peter Okebukola, stated the new curriculum addressed the knowledge and skill gaps as it was replacing in comparable in contents to the similar curriculum in the best university system in the world and relevant to Nigeria’s social-cultural context.
In the new curriculum, Mass Communication was unbundled to Advertising, Broadcasting, Development Communication Studies, Film and Multimedia, Information and Media Studies, Journalism and Media Studies, Mass Communication, Public Relations, and Strategic Communication.
Agriculture was unbundled into programmes in its contributing components of B.Sc Agricultural Economics, B.Sc. Animal Science, B.Sc. Crop Science and B.Sc. Soil Science.
There was also the unbundling of Architecture and the introduction of Architecture as a new discipline with programmes like Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Architectural Technology, Interior Architecture design Architectural Technology, and Naval architecture.
There was also the split of the Basic Medical Sciences discipline into Basic Medical Sciences and Allied Health Science; Also is the reduction of the General Studies course from 36 credit units to 12 credit units of 6 courses such as Communication in English; Nigerian People and Culture; Philosophy, Logic, and Human Existence; Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Venture creation; and Peace and Conflict resolution.
While Entrepreneurship was repackaged with the introduction of programme-specific entrepreneurship.
