NUC to develop masters course on aging studies

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has concluded plans to develop a Master of Science (M.Sc) programmes in Geriatric Medicine in 11 selected universities across Nigeria.

Executive Secretary of the commission Prof. Julius Okojie announced this in Abuja during a stakeholders’ consultative meeting on capacity building for geriatric medicine, under the theme Geriatric medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with ageing studies.

Nigeria’s older population is growing at an accelerated rate of about 8.2 million, he said and that the number is projected to reach 10 million by 2020 and 29 million by 2050.

“The demographic changes and the psyco- socio economic implications present enormous challenges, one of which is development and provision of high quality continuum of geriatric services,” Okojie explained.
He stated that 22 academic staff from 11 selected universities have been trained in the University of North Texas and have obtained the Specialist in Ageing Certificates in Applied Gerontology under the sponsorship of NUC.

The trained staff would pass on their knowledge to others. “Those who hold PhD and Masters in this will go to other institutions to teach.

The requirement is that if you want to start a programme in the university, you come and do resource dedication which means in more years there would be many universities coming on board required to start the program,” the NUC boss explained.