Beyond the Syllabus: Inside the gap between university curricula and life after graduation

By Oludayo Similoluwa 

In Nigeria today, the gap between classroom theory and market reality has become a talking point for students, employers, and policymakers alike.

Outside the heavy metal doors of the lecture theatre, does the university syllabus perform up to standard in equipping students for the labour market, or does it fall short of preparing them for an economy driven by inflation, a job market that seems to rewrite its own rules every morning, and a society where knowing a formula rarely guarantees a meal?

Is there a widening gap between what fills a student’s notebook and what today’s employers actually demand? Is the syllabus stuck in time, or is it adapting to a changing world? Is memorising a twenty-year-old textbook enough to face a 2026 job market shaped by technology, digital communication, and agility?

In the Faculty of Engineering, for instance, students are still made to cram formulas with little exposure to practical application. In the Faculty of Law, students spend years dissecting constitutional theory and memorising decades-old case law, yet many graduate without ever drafting a real contract, sitting through a live courtroom proceeding, or negotiating a settlement, which is the actual daily work of most practising lawyers in 2026. From engineering halls where students memorise thermodynamics without ever touching a faulty transformer, to law faculties that teach theory but rarely simulate a courtroom, the pattern repeats itself across nearly every department.

But numbers and observation only tell half the story. To understand what this gap feels like from the inside, recent graduates and final-year students across nine Nigerian universities share what their degrees actually prepared them for, and what they have had to teach themselves.

Students, graduates, share views

At Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Mustapha Oseni, a recent Mass Communication graduate, sums up a complaint that would echo through almost every interview: “Nigerian universities lean too heavily on theory.” He believes Ahmadu Bello University is capable of doing better, but argues that most Nigerian universities “tend to do things in theories, written formats and don’t really go into the practical aspect of things.”

He mentioned, for instance, that during his time in the university, ‘we did some practicals but they are very few’. He shares his experience during his internship at FRCN in Kaduna. His role during the internship program was news reporting and translating English broadcasts into Hausa for their audience.

For him, where theory met reality, he realised a gap between the classroom theory and on-site experience. “When I got there, they don’t joke with time to bring the news to the public on time,” he said of the industry shock. Even in university, access to the control room for practice by mass communication students had been tightly restricted until he had his first-hand experience when he was on the job. “Journalism is more challenging than what we read in books,” he added.

He also pointed to the overwhelming student ratio to facilities available as part of the problem. “In my class, for instance, we number about 150 students, not to talk of the other levels yet sharing limited facilities including the studio that were never built for that number of students.” “We are taught how to read and write news in theory, but how many of us can sit down, face the camera and read the news perfectly?” he said.

“Beyond learning how to write a good headline and so on, I realised journalism is wider than that. It requires a whole lot of practical participation for you to be able to fit in.”

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Oseni’s prescription is straightforward: universities need courses that expose students to the practical side of what they study, not just the theory behind it. He rated fluency in tools like Wave Editor and other digital audio software as more useful to his career than the ability to cram lecture notes.

He is aware the National Universities Commission (NUC) has rolled out its new Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), but said he has mostly seen old courses swapped for differently named ones rather than a real overhaul. If given the choice to swap one of his courses for an industry-specific course, he would drop “Media Management”, which he described as largely about the internal structure and financing of media organisations, for “Photojournalism.” According to him, some of the skills he possesses today, such as content creation, running Facebook ad campaigns, AI tools, and photo editing, he taught himself online.

A recurring theme across campuses was scepticism about what grades actually measure.

At the University of Benin, Babatunde Funmi Olarenwaju, a 200-level Health, Safety and Environmental Education student, sees her syllabus as a foundation rather than a finished product, useful, but requiring outside certification to be complete. She is blunt about what grades reward: “Some lecturers would tell you to write exactly what you are told in class, so in that case, you have to memorise or cram to pass.”

For her, grades and comprehension aren’t quite the same thing. If given the choice, she would drop “Wellness and Physical Fitness” for something closer to her field. ‘It is a good course, but I don’t think it is relevant to my field of study, and I would prefer a course that is more environmental or health-related.

She commits about a fifth of her monthly allowance to data subscriptions to keep learning skills like AI use and storytelling. “I do not want to be left behind in the trend,” she said.

At Obafemi Awolowo University, Olatunde Oluwaseyi Joan, a 400-level History student minoring in International Relations, noted that “the university syllabus has its pros and cons in preparing students for life after graduation”. Through one of my courses- HIS 304, Methods of Historical Research- she noted that it taught her something she now uses daily, on the job as an intern reporter at The Lagos Voice: to confirm facts before concluding. “History has been helpful in some ways, where we don’t see things from one perspective before concluding on a story,” she said.

Other courses landed less well; she singles out HIS 311, History of the Far East, as unnecessary, and says flatly of the course, “I don’t know what they are teaching us in that course and what to do with history.”

Her department doesn’t run industrial training or SIWES at all, so her real-world exposure has come entirely from her internship and from Coursera, where a friend introduced her to product management. “The world is more like a digital world,” she said. “If you are not informed or digitally equipped, I think the world will leave you behind; in fact, you are left behind already.”

Her recommendations for reform go beyond her own department: “integrate practical components into theory-heavy courses, let history students do industrial training too, and stop treating the final-year project as the major evaluation of a student’s ability. “Everything shouldn’t be writing,” she said. “We need courses to build our survival skills beyond the classroom.”

She recommends the introduction of tech- related courses to prepare students for the digital world, such as the use of AI. “Although when we entered school, in our first year, they taught us Adobe and PowerPoint, we were more than the facilities available. If the school can provide us with opportunities to learn tech courses we can minor in, I consider it very nice.

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Boluwatife Adeyeye, a 400-level Computer Engineering student at Obafemi Awolowo University, noted that “I don’t think the university syllabus is sufficient enough to survive in the Job market; there’s a huge gap between theory and practice.” Speaking to the gap that exists between the classroom and the workplace, he cited that he is “currently interning with a Financial software solutions company as a software engineer. Most of the things that we are taught in class are just on the surface level; in the industry you get to see the depth of it without you even knowing this is what you have been taught.”

To be future-ready, he is currently learning and working in the role as an IT support and cybersecurity analyst. “The course I would have loved to drop is AEE 202; it’s about welding, carpentry and woodwork; it has no real advantage to my course of study or future needs.” “We should be taught life- ready skills, like entrepreneurship, Financial analysis and planning and major leadership skills because you need these or their combination to survive reality,” he added.

Furthermore, a 400-level student nursing student in OAU, Abisola Mary Olasupo, takes the opposite view of her own course load. She considers it more than sufficient, largely because clinical postings already build in the practical exposure other faculties lack. Even so, she agrees grades are a poor proxy for intelligence: “You can’t determine someone’s actual intelligence through grades. It simply might be one’s ability to memorise things.” She hadn’t heard of CCMAS, the newly integrated curriculum.

At Bayero University, Kano, Islamiyyah, a 200-level Islamic and Common Law student, connects the grades question to a broader definition of readiness. “Grades show a person’s academic performance, but intelligence is broader than that,” she said, pointing to emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and leadership as qualities no examination result captures.

“Employers are looking beyond certificates; they are looking for those who can think critically, communicate effectively, use technology, and adapt to new challenges.”

She’s aware of CCMAS and credits it with some improvement, but wants more emphasis on practical learning and industry exposure. If given the option, she would swap one of her courses for “Legal Technology and Digital Research Skills,” arguing that law itself is becoming a technology-driven profession and that data literacy has become “an important educational necessity” for anyone who wants to keep learning.

For students whose programmes do include industrial attachment, the transition from classroom to workplace produced some of the most vivid testimony.

Amosu Roselyn, a 400-level Industrial Chemistry student at the University of Lagos, is currently doing her SIWES at Chemical Industry Nigeria Ltd, which manufactures paint and related products. “During my SIWES, I have been exposed to industrial manufacturing processes, quality control procedures, production, operations, and safety practices,” she said.

The adjustment wasn’t only technical. “One thing that surprised me was how much standard industries place on operating procedures such as speed, teamwork, and problem-solving,” she said. “In the classroom we learn the theory of how industrial processing goes on, but in the lab, we develop technical skills like attention to detail. It showed me that classroom learning alone is not sufficient to solve every real-world challenge.”

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Like several of her peers, she is sceptical that grades tell the whole story: “Good grades definitely show discipline, but there are qualities like creativity, leadership, communication, and adaptability that are not reflected in the grade.”

She has tracked real change from CCMAS, though she thinks it needs to go further, “especially by incorporating more practical training, industry collaborations, and digital skills development.” If she could swap one course, it would be General Studies for Data Analysis and Digital Process Automation, arguing that industries now run on data literacy in a way English composition doesn’t capture.

She noted, “We have been learning to use English since primary school.” She couldn’t put a number on how much she’s spent on YouTube tutorials for coursework, her business, and her own research. Her biggest frustration, though, was structural: how hard it was to land her SIWES placement in the first place, and how many personal connections it took to get there.

Her recommendations follow directly from that experience: “I suggest that the school increases their industrial training, partners more with industries to get internships for students, introduces digital skills in AI and entrepreneurship, and encourages students to earn professional certificates before they even graduate.

At Bayero University, Kano, and at Lead City University, Ibadan, students described a similar hunger for exposure that their programmes don’t provide. Temiloluwa, a 300-level Microbiology student at Lead City, because her courses are too theoretical, decided on her own initiative to pick up AI tools, Microsoft applications, and presentation skills, and describes the resulting workload bluntly: “I feel like I am doing two degrees – one for my university degree and one for online learning.” Between a fifth and a third of her monthly allowance goes to data subscriptions just to stay current with industry trends.

Her recommendation as well mirrors Roselyn’s almost exactly. At the University of Ilorin, Boluwatife, a 400-level Medical Laboratory Science student, did her SIWES at Ilorin Teaching Hospital’s Medical Laboratory Department. She described her own industry shock in a single line: it was her “first-time exposure to the practical aspect of what had been taught in the classroom.”

If she is also given the choice, she would drop ANA 210- Upper Limbs in favour of a language or an entrepreneurship course, calling it simply unnecessary. About half her monthly allowance goes toward data subscriptions.

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Still, she credits her university with beginning to adapt: “I think Unilorin is already waking up to that standard, because currently we already get to learn entrepreneurial skills, and I think in 400 level again there is a course on IT for students to get more knowledge on IT experience.” Her recommendation: “introduce more digital programmes”.

Lecturer weighs in

However, in an interview with Mr Stephen Adewale, a lecturer in the Department of History at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, he noted that “This conversation is long overdue because it forces us to reflect on the purpose of university education in a rapidly changing world.”

Mr Adewale explained, “From my perspective, Nigerian universities still perform an important role in building intellectual capacity. Students are exposed to disciplinary knowledge, critical thinking, academic writing, research methods and habits of rigorous inquiry.”

Where the gap has become more obvious is in the pace of change outside the university. Technology, new industries and the global economy evolve much faster than curriculum review cycles. Employers now expect graduates to possess digital competence, communication skills, adaptability, teamwork and practical experience alongside academic qualifications.

“I see this less as a failure of university education than as an indication that higher education and industry now need to work much more closely together than they did in previous generations.”

Speaking on how he feels about the fact that many students now pay more attention to online boot camps than traditional departmental textbooks, he said: “I see it as evidence that learning has become much more accessible than it was in the past.”

He added, “At the same time, I would encourage balance. University textbooks provide historical context, theoretical grounding and intellectual depth. Boot camps, by design, concentrate on practical and industry-specific skills. Each serves a different purpose. Students benefit most when they combine the strengths of both approaches.

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Mr Adewale added that given the need for students to measure up to market realities, there are efforts on the part of the university to adapt, although progress varies considerably from one institution to another. According to Mr Adewale, funding remains one of the most significant constraints. Many institutions struggle to provide access to modern laboratories, functional libraries, reliable digital infrastructure, and research grants consistently.

Frequent disruptions to the academic calendar through strikes and other institutional challenges further weaken the learning environment. He explained, “I remain optimistic because Nigerian universities continue to produce graduates who excel in academia, business, public service and industry across the world.”

Institutions’ syllabuses

Overall, the NUC’s CCMAS framework was meant to modernise what Nigerian universities teach. Asked about it directly, most students had heard the name; fewer could point to anything concrete that had changed. Mustapha Oseni noted only a swap of old course titles for new ones. Babatunde Olarenwaju had heard about the upgrade but had seen little beyond a new Entrepreneurship course at 300 level.

Anifowoshe Abigail Oluwaseun, a 300-level Medical Laboratory Science student at Joseph Ayo Babalola University, was more positive about her school; she said she has genuinely built the new CCMAS into its syllabus, and she considers her own preparation for the labour market sufficient; if she could drop one course, it would be Statistics (STA 201).

Temiloluwa at Lead City, and Boluwatife at Ilorin, had not heard of the reform at all. Adunsola Mary Olasupo at OAU’s Nursing programme hadn’t either, though she considers her clinical training sufficient regardless. Only Islamiyyah at Bayero and Amosu Roselyn at UNILAG described noticing real, if partial, change on the ground.

The pattern suggests a reform that reads clearly in policy documents but unevenly on the ground, visible in some departments, invisible in others, and largely undetected by students in courses that remain furthest from practical application.

Almost every student interviewed by The Lagos Voice described funding their own supplementary education, usually through data subscriptions that eat into already-tight monthly allowances.

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At UNILAG, Oni Oluwaseun, a 300-level Business Administration student, framed the whole problem in a single line: “Nigerian universities do not really prepare students for life after graduation, because during their stay in school they are mainly taught the theoretical aspect rather than the practical aspect, so they find it very difficult to find the right workplace because they are not skilful.” “Skill-based training should be included,” he said, “so that the gap can be bridged between education and the demand of the modern workforce.”

The self-funded second curriculum shows up in the numbers students gave when asked how much of their allowance goes to staying current: roughly 20% for Babatunde Olarenwaju at UNIBEN, 20–30% for Temiloluwa at Lead City, and as much as 50% for Boluwatife at Ilorin.

Amosu Roselyn at UNILAG said she simply couldn’t quantify what she spends on YouTube tutorials alone. Across every one of these accounts, the destination is the same – AI tools, digital marketing, data analysis, design skills students believe their degree alone will not give them, purchased out of pocket, on top of tuition they’re already paying for a credential that increasingly functions as a baseline rather than a guarantee.

Asked which course they would drop if they could, students converged on a theme: remove the abstract or the redundant, replace it with the applied.

Mustapha Oseni (Ahmadu Bello University, Mass Communication) would drop Media Management to add Photojournalism. Babatunde Olarenwaju (UNIBEN, Health & Safety) would drop Wellness and Physical Fitness to add a field-relevant health/environmental course amongst others.

The specific courses differ by faculty, but the logic does not: students want less content chosen for its place in passing their exams and more chosen for its place in the job they are about to start applying for.

Stripped of the differences between medicine, law, chemistry, and journalism, the students’ recommendations converge on a short, consistent list: Strengthen and formalise SIWES and internship pipelines, including direct partnerships between universities and employers.

Several students described the search for a placement as harder than the placement itself. Also, build practical and digital components into theory-heavy courses, rather than treating “practical” as a separate, optional track.

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Furthermore, stop relying on the final-year project or written exams as the sole measure of competence and introduce structured digital skills and entrepreneurship skills like AI, data analysis, and digital marketing as core curriculum, not extracurricular self-study.

Run regular career-development workshops and encourage students to earn professional certifications before graduation, not after.

Set side by side, these accounts sketch a Nigerian university system that has not stood still -CCMAS is real, and a handful of students can point to it but has moved more slowly and less visibly than the labour market it’s meant to prepare students for.

In the meantime, the gap is being closed informally: by YouTube tutorials bought with a fifth to a half of a monthly allowance, by SIWES placements secured through personal connections rather than institutional pipelines, and by students who describe, almost identically, the sensation of doing two degrees at once. Mr Stephen Adewale attributed the improvement in the university syllabus and the integrati on of practical learning to the availability of resources at the university’s disposal.