The Federal Government has instructed that graduates are no longer mobilized to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) unless they upload their final-year projects, and other academic work, to the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD).
Reform was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, subjecting NYSC mobilisation to the NERD policy officially. Referring to Sections 2(4)(4) and 16(1)(C) of the NYSC Act, the president directed that no foreign or local graduate should be mobilised or exempted from NYSC unless evidence of deposit of their research works in the repository is provided.
The directive, signed by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Senator George Akume, became effective from October 6.
The students are mandated by the policy to deposit theses, dissertations, and final-year projects into the NERD database. The project is intended to avert certificate forgery, retention of intellectual property, and quality assurance in higher education.
NERD official Haula Galadima clarified that submissions should contain the student’s name, supervisor, co-supervisor, Head of Department, and sponsoring institution, for accountability in the supervisory academic role to be made effective.
She also added that the online platform will encourage lecturers to do better, as their names will be appearing on the works of students across the globe.
“Few lecturers would want their names appearing on poorly done-up projects. NERD is thereby set to encourage quality supervision and re-enforce academic integrity in the country,” Galadima added.
