Beyond the certificate: Why COREN must be in the classroom before the gate

On Thursday, 6 August 2026, the National Universities Commission (NUC) issued a public notice reasserting its authority to accredit undergraduate degree programmes in Nigeria. This reignited a longstanding debate: should the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) accredit engineering programmes during students' time in the classroom, or wait until after graduation to evaluate graduates solely for licensing?

The answer to this question is crucial. A country that values both an efficient educational system and the safety of its engineering infrastructure needs both COREN's and NUC's assessments. The NUC's authority is clear and unassailable, stemming from the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act. However, COREN's role is distinct and vital: to ensure that engineering programmes produce competent and safe professionals, capable of designing, wiring, and certifying structures.

The Engineers (Registration, etc.) Act, 2004, amended in 2018, grants COREN the power to determine the knowledge and skill standards engineers must meet. Section 6(1) states that only graduates from COREN-approved programmes at approved institutions can be fully registered. Section 9(6) requires institutions to submit syllabus, content, and minimum facilities to COREN for approval before a course can commence. This mandate is explicit and applies at the pre-graduation level.

NUM's public notice indicates that COREN should wait until graduation to accredit programmes. This approach is flawed because an engineering curriculum is not a static body of knowledge to be tested at the end; it is a dynamic process involving labs, workshops, design studios, and industrial attachments that must be properly structured from the beginning. If COREN only inspects the finished graduate, it risks discovering issues only after they have affected an entire cohort.

This issue has been tragically evident in Nigeria. In March 2026, the Federal High Court ordered the University of Calabar to pay millions of naira to eight former engineering students, known as the "UNICAL 8". These students had been in non-accredited programmes, discovering the faulty accreditation only after enrolling. The court ruled that institutions must disclose accreditation status before admitting students.

Similar issues are now being addressed upstream. In June 2026, the NUC directed JAMB to consider COREN's assessment of engineering programme capacity when allocating admission quotas, ensuring that only adequately equipped programmes receive student intake.

Nigeria does not need to invent a novel accreditation system. Layered accreditation—where a general higher-education authority and a specialized engineering body coexist—is common internationally. For instance, in the United States, universities receive institutional and program accreditations from separate entities like ABET, a Washington Accord signatory.

Similarly, in the United Kingdom, the Quality Assurance Agency oversees general institutional standards while the Engineering Council, through licensed professional bodies, separately accredits engineering degrees based on professional technical standards.

COREN's provisional Washington Accord status under the International Engineering Alliance allows Nigerian engineering degrees to gain international recognition. This recognition is granted to bodies that independently accredit programmes based on outcomes-based criteria. Therefore, confining COREN to post-graduation licensing is not tenable. COREN and NUC must work together, each safeguarding different but equally important public interests.