Keywords
Forensic education; Accreditation commission; Forensic science; Forensic regulation
Abstract
Forensic education is yet to gain a foothold in the Nigerian educational system even though there are several well-trained practitioners plying their trade in the country. The near absence of forensic education emanates from low manpower in the academia, dearth of facilities, non-regulatory policy and lack of awareness amongst others. For such a rich discipline to gain its roots in our educational system and to make it standardized in conformity to global best practices, the need for a regulatory body to unveil and enforce well-coded guidelines for its practice cannot be over emphasized. In this paper, the authors propose a national forensic education accreditation body- the Forensic Education Programmes Accreditation Commission (FEPAC), which would be in charge of regulating the practice of forensic education in Nigeria. The body when fully operational would work with the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Forensic Research and Development Centre (FORDEC) and foreign-based forensic agencies for the overall functioning of forensic education in Nigeria. The different roles of the commission are spelt out alongside the numerous benefits of such a commission on the different stakeholders in the country.
Citation
Ehikhamenor E and Chiwuike UK. Towards Developing and Establishing a Regulatory Guideline for Accreditation of Forensic Education in Nigeria. SM J Forensic Res Criminol. 2017; 1(2): 1007.