Education minister directs tertiary institutions to make recruitment public

The Nigerian government has mandated that all federal tertiary institutions make their vacancies and recruitment public.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, asked the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to publish their vacancies in at least one national daily newspaper, on their websites and in other relevant academic and professional journals.

In a statement by the ministry’s spokesperson, Folasade Boriowo, the minister said the directive followed the waivers granted to some of the institutions to recruit more staff into their folds after they raised concerns about manpower shortage.

“This directive aims to ensure a transparent, open, and competitive recruitment process that offers equal opportunity to all eligible Nigerians,” the statement said.

The minister also asked the institutions to submit their recruitment needs to the education ministry for review by the Committee on Waiver and Recruitment.

“The Ministry has put in place adequate mechanisms to ensure compliance and will not hesitate to apply sanctions against any institution that fails to adhere to this directive,” the statement added.

Similar directive

Mr Alausa recently directed heads of public tertiary institutions to publish key institutional data on their official websites.

The minister mandated all the institutions to publish, in full, the breakdown of their annual budgetary allocation on personnel cost, overhead cost and capital expenditures, and their research grant revenue including from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

The minister also asked the institutions to provide their current total student population, categorised into undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

READ ALSO: Group launches initiative to track education minister’s directive on tertiary institutions data disclosure

Increasing transparency

In both directives, the minister said it was borne out of the need for increased transparency by the university.

A recent research shows how financial secrecy by Nigerian universities affected their ability to access global grants, despite their financial struggles.

The report, which surveyed 64 Nigerian universities, concluded that the culture of secrecy reinforces external perceptions that Nigerian universities are high-risk partners that are unprepared to manage international grants or major research funding.