The Federal Government has directed vice-chancellors of federal universities to provide evidence of staff shortages, labour-market demand and relevance to national human capital development priorities before seeking approval for additional personnel The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, issued the directive in a letter dated October 19, 2026, addressed to vice-chancellors of all federal universities, expressing concern over rising manpower requests and their financial implications for the government. Alausa said the existing process for requesting additional personnel failed to adequately consider the cost implications, which are borne entirely by the Federal Government. The minister also expressed concern over requests for personnel to support academic programmes with limited labour-market demand or insufficient alignment with the country’s human capital development priorities. Under the new directive, universities are expected to prioritise vacancies arising from staff attrition, including retirement, resignation, death, dismissal and transfer.
However, requests for additional recruitment beyond these vacancies, particularly those linked to new courses, academic programmes or institutional expansion, will undergo stricter scrutiny
Alausa said universities seeking approval for such recruitment must provide clear evidence of labour-market demand, graduate employability and the proposed programmes’ relevance to national development priorities
Institutions must also demonstrate that proposed courses are distinct and do not duplicate programmes already offered by other universities
The minister said the measures were designed to promote prudent spending, improve efficiency and strengthen strategic manpower planning across the tertiary education sector
Alausa urged all vice-chancellors to ensure full compliance with the new directives