IAUE Vice-Chancellor Inaugurates NERD Committee to Enforce Federal Digital Repository Policy

The Vice-Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Professor Okechuku Onuchuku, on Monday, October 20, 2025, inaugurated the IAUE National Education Repository and Databank (NERD) Committee at the university auditorium in compliance with the recent directive of the Federal Government mandating full adherence to the NERD Policy.

According to the university’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Ngozi Okiridu, the Federal Government had, in a circular dated September 29, 2025, instructed all education sector stakeholders to comply with the NERD Policy as a prerequisite for both mobilisation into and exemption from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The IAUE NERD Committee comprises the NERD Digitalization Officer and ICT Director, Professor Nathaniel Ojekudo; Students Affairs Officer and NERD Clearance Slip Submission Officer, Dr. Gloria Albert Darleen; NERD Focal Officer and Management Information System Head, Dr. Emmanuel Chinwendu Aburuotu; NERD Record Officer, Dr. Kingsley Theophilus Igulu; all Heads of Department; and all Departmental Project Coordinators.

The Federal Government introduced nationwide enforcement of the NERD Policy as part of its comprehensive anti-fraud and academic quality assurance initiative. The newly inaugurated IAUE NERD members are charged with ensuring that all prospective corps members deposit their final-year projects, theses, dissertations, or equivalent academic works into the NERD portal and obtain valid NERD clearance slips prior to NYSC registration and orientation.

Students are expected to upload digital copies of their approved projects or theses on the NERD portal. The committee is responsible for coordinating submissions, validating uploads, and issuing clearance slips following supervisory approvals within the NERD system. The platform incorporates a structured digital workflow that includes preliminary upload, AI-based plagiarism checks, supervisor or external examiner approval, file optimization, and final submission—all of which must be fully integrated into IAUE’s mobilisation process.

Additionally, students are required to submit soft copies of their projects to their Departmental Project Coordinators, who will forward them to the NERD Digitalization Officer for upload and onward verification by the NERD Focal Officer. The NERD Record Officer will ensure that graduation results are also uploaded as part of the clearance process, while the NERD Digitalization Officer will forward digital copies to the University Librarian for permanent academic storage.

Students must then submit their NERD clearance slips to the Student Affairs Officer. The IAUE NERD team will also organise workshops for all final-year students and prospective corps members, coordinated by the Dean of Student Affairs, to ensure adequate preparation and compliance with the policy.