Thesis Digitisation: Ekiti Varsity Leads National Digital Submissions

Nigerian students have successfully uploaded and curated over 10,000 academic project entries within the first three weeks of the newly launched national education record digitisation programme under the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD).

By this weekend, the figure rose to over 11,000 submissions, including 158 postgraduate entries from 242 active institutions, while more than 40,000 students have been enrolled on the NERD system.

Early submissions indicate that Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, currently leads with 990 curated entries, followed by Bayero University, Kano, with 611 submissions. Auchi Polytechnic in Edo State ranks third, with 532 project uploads recorded so far.

Other leading institutions include Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma (493), Osun State Polytechnic, Iree (479), the University of Ilorin (469), Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere-Ekiti (462), Kaduna Polytechnic (379), the University of Benin (374), and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (282), rounding out the top ten within the programme’s first month.

The report further reveals that the Science and Innovation category leads national student research interests, recording 5,952 entries. Notably, this figure includes research from students outside science disciplines, including those in arts and social sciences who are exploring innovation-related themes.

Other major thematic clusters include Multidisciplinary (2,091), Engineering and Technology (1,958), Tourism and Entertainment (1,392), Infrastructure and Sustainable Development (952), and Humanities (783).

The NERD programme, led by Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has also onboarded 135 tertiary institutions for academic credential verification.

According to NERD spokesperson Haula Galadima, one of the Federal Government’s goals for the digitisation and classification initiative is to enhance the quality of research supervision in Nigerian institutions.

She noted that lecturers are likely to ensure higher academic standards knowing their names will accompany each submitted project and be visible to researchers, industry leaders, and innovators globally.

She further stated that NERD now provides precise tracking metrics for earned academic allowances, allowing government to better assess supervisory workload across institutions.

Data from the platform shows that female students currently lead in submissions, with 6,142 uploads compared to 4,995 from male students.

Live data analytics and institutional rankings can be viewed through the NERD portal at https://esmat.ned.gov.ng.

This marks the first time since independence that Nigeria is systematically digitising, classifying, and archiving research outputs from all levels of tertiary education.

The overarching objective is to make research findings easily accessible, improve their relevance to industry, enable further academic development, and strengthen Nigeria’s contribution to global knowledge.

Under NERD regulations, all academic project outputs must be deposited in the national databank regardless of whether the institution is public or private, and regardless of whether the work is undergraduate or postgraduate.

While NYSC has approved an exemption for students whose clearance processes began before the October 6 compliance date, undergraduate project uploads across campuses continue to increase daily.

The national thesis digitisation effort forms part of NERD’s wider mandate, which includes the ongoing Academic Credential Verification scheme aimed at eliminating qualification fraud, and the National Students’ Clearing House system designed to serve as a unified academic record archive across all tertiary institutions.