Nigeria: Academics decry food demands at Nigerian postgraduate exams

By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria

A growing practice in Nigerian universities is drawing criticism: postgraduate candidates being expected to provide food and drinks for examiners before defending their theses. What many describe as “culture” or “optional,” students and scholars say, has become an unspoken obligation that undermines academic integrity.

The scene is increasingly common: a candidate arrives for a master’s or PhD defence with a bound dissertation and a cooler packed with meals for the panel. Often framed as tradition, the gesture is rarely voluntary. For many, it is expected. And once expectation enters the room, critics warn, merit begins to erode.

A postgraduate defence should be a rigorous intellectual exercise where arguments are tested and methods interrogated. Only the quality of scholarship should matter — not hospitality or unwritten social codes.

Yet across several universities, candidates are quietly, and sometimes explicitly, given “defence lists” of items to provide: wraps of pounded yam, jollof or fried rice, assorted meats, crates of drinks. The practice is labeled optional, but refusal can draw disapproval or subtle pressure. In some departments, staff even coordinate the arrangements. What starts as celebration hardens into expectation, then pressure, then coercion.

*Candidates Share Experiences*  

Philip, who defended his doctoral thesis at a South-West university, said he had to arrange refreshments and drinks for the external assessor and department staff. “We made arrangements for the external assessor to come over and surely money was paid for some things and I was given the mandate to provide refreshment and drinks,” he said. He insists his thesis met the assessors’ demands.

Uche, who defended in the South-East, said the trend worsens financial strain on students. “Some people who go for postgraduate studies do so because they don’t have jobs and they believe that bagging higher degrees could improve their possibility of securing some jobs. So, asking such people to now add the expenses of compulsory feeding of people is killing,” he said.

*‘Academic Scandal’*  

Professor Adeyemi Ademowo, of Afe Babalola University’s Department of Sociology, called the practice “Show your cooler before defense academic scandal” in a recent social media post. He said he first heard of a “defense list” in late 2025 from a colleague at a federal university.

“Across some Nigerian universities, postgraduate candidates… are now handed a mandatory ‘defense list.’ This list does not contain scholarly requirements or intellectual benchmarks. Rather, it itemises consumables,” he wrote. “In some instances, the defense date is not even fixed until this culinary obligation is satisfied.”

Ademowo argued the practice raises ethical issues. “How do we convincingly separate academic judgment from social indebtedness when a candidate has obviously been tasked to provide assorted food items to host the very panel tasked with assessing them? Even if no explicit bias occurs, the optics alone erode confidence in the credibility of the process.”

He noted most Nigerian MSc and PhD students are self-funded, juggling tuition, research costs, and survival. “To now impose an additional, non-academic financial burden… is not only insensitive; it is structurally exploitative.”

He warned against normalising the trend: “What begins as an exception quietly becomes a rule; what is questioned today becomes unquestionable tomorrow.” While culture values hospitality, he said, “Hospitality loses its moral meaning when it is demanded. A gift that is compelled ceases to be a gift.”

Ademowo stressed that a defence is not a wedding or naming ceremony but “a rigorous intellectual exercise meant to test the originality, depth and contribution of a candidate’s research.” He called for optional, collectively funded post-defence receptions and structured postgraduate funding. “If left unchecked, we risk producing… a generation socialized into the logic that success is negotiated not only through merit, but through material appeasement.”

*‘Don’t Bastardise the Process’*  

Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, National President of the Congress of University Academics, said culture isn’t the problem. “In African societies, we celebrate achievements communally… There is nothing inherently wrong with a candidate choosing to celebrate after a successful defence. But such celebration must remain voluntary, separate from the assessment process, and free of institutional involvement.”

He noted that in leading university systems — Japan, the UK, the US, much of Europe — assessment and hospitality are strictly separated. Where refreshments are needed, the institution provides them. External examiners are insulated from personal obligations to candidates, and any celebration happens after the defence, outside official proceedings.

“The issue is perception and precedent,” Sunmonu said. “If candidates are expected to provide refreshments, what message are we sending about merit? What pressure are we placing on those who cannot afford it?”

He argued the practice persists because it’s tolerated and rationalised as tradition. Yet some candidates have refused and were still judged on their work. “That alone should tell us that the practice is not necessary, but entrenched.”

Sunmonu called for clear rules: no food, drinks, or entertainment within the defence; no departmental lists or coordination; assessment based solely on merit. “Students must be empowered to understand that their success depends on their scholarship, not their provision.”

“The credibility of our universities rests not only on what we teach, but on how we examine,” he said. “We must return to a simple principle… in a university, ideas must speak first. Everything else, no matter how culturally familiar, must remain outside the room.”