John Uzoma Ihendinihu 1 , Mike Chidiebere Ekwe 2 & Wilson Uchenna Ani 3
1&2 Department of Accounting, 3 Department of Banking and Finance
College of Management Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture,
Umudike
Emails: 1 ihendinihu.john@gmail.com Corresponding Author.
2 ekwemike@yahoo.com & 3 wilsonani2007@yahoo.com
In the recent past, regulators of tertiary institutions in Nigeria reviewed academic policy on
programmes offered by Specialized Universities (SUs) in the country. This action resulted in
delisting some previously approved and fully accredited programmes from the list of
programmes offered by these Universities. This regulatory action generated agitations from
many stakeholders in the education sector for its numerous negative implications. This paper
examined the legal mandates of Specialized Federal Universities (SFUs) in Nigeria against the
backdrop of current global trends and the effects of the directive on the country; noting that
mounting Management Science programmes in SUs does not breach the provisions of the
statutes that established the Universities. In addition, the paper uncovered the real challenges
of SFUs in Nigeria and appealed to the proprietor and regulators of the Institutions to address
the real problems of SFUs rather than basing the review on alleged breach of mandate by the
co-existence of the programmes to undermine the good essence of allied professional
disciplines in specialized Universities. The paper therefore advocates that stakeholders in the
management of tertiary education in Nigeria should adopt a comprehensive and diversified
educational model that offers complementary benefits to a variety of disciplines in line with
global best practices in academic curricula of similar Institutions in other parts of the world.
Keywords: Specialized Universities, legal mandate, global best practices, management science
programmes, diversified educational model