Competency Based Learning at AUN

For the past two and a half decades, I have spent my career working in American-style higher education, in the United States and around the globe. As I currently serve as the Vice Chancellor/ President of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), I work closely with our Provost and faculty to oversee our academic programmes.

The American style system has some noticeable differences from other types of pedagogy and programmes. For example, all American universities employ a general education system that has students take courses across the academic spectrum. This programme’s purpose is to help students develop broad intellectual and practical competencies that will prepare them for lifelong learning, good citizenship, work environments and life overall.

At the core of the liberal arts approach to general education is competency-based learning. No matter the course of study the student pursues (i.e. law, engineering, biology, etc.), they all engage in the same general education courses with students from other academic disciplines. The American University of Nigeria has five overarching core learning outcomes that it assesses in its general education delivery.

1. Critical Thinking & Independent Reasoning
2. Effective Communication & Information Literacy
3. Emotional Intelligence & Social Awareness
4. Social Responsibility, Community Engagement & Global Citizenship
5. Leadership, Innovation & Problem-Solving for Development

For example, with critical thinking and independent reasoning, the institution has student evaluate arguments, interpret information, and make evidence-based decisions. This is achieved by having students take courses such as biology, where they learn in-depth about evidence-based learning and applying the scientific method. This course and others allow us to build capacity in young people to apply their knowledge to solve problems, no matter the course they study (or as Americans say, major in).

The second one is about effective communication and information literacy. In any position, no matter the career, people need to be able to articulate their ideas either verbally or in written form. Also, they need to be a strong lifelong learner who thinks independently, and they need to understand clearly where to go for accurate information. At the AUN, we expect students to communicate effectively through a range of methods (written, oral, quantitative, visual), including the use of digital technologies applicable to the 21st-century environments.

Students take, in their first year, a sequence of English writing courses aimed directly at improving this core competency. The courses’ learning outcomes centre around clear thinking, persuasive writing, organisation of ideas, all skills that will help them in any discipline.

The third one outlined is about emotional intelligence and social awareness. The university wants to build students who are aware of their surroundings and understand clearly the challenges Nigeria faces (i.e. insecurities, etc.) as well as the world (i.e. climate change, etc.). With a clearer understanding in terms of the root causes and surrounding nuances, it allows them to develop solutions to real-world problems. All of this builds the learners’ ability to develop their own emotional intelligence. In general, in education courses like history and political science, the students learn about the background that has caused challenging issues. In this style of learning, the faculty do not tell the student what to think; instead, the student is allowed to formulate their own opinion based on the facts.

The fourth one, and one that has been a hallmark of the AUN reputation as a development university, is the push for social responsibility, community engagement and global citizenship. The university explains this as the ability to “operate as responsible democratic citizens and global change-agents — understanding global issues and social needs.” There are many classes in general education, and the students’ core subjects that have them engage the community for service. Many courses in the arts and humanities also push this important learning competency as it has students think outside the box on how we can give a “hand up, and not only a hand out” so students discover ways to make impact sustainable. This engagement and impact led the university to be ranked number one in the Times Higher Education (U.K., 2024) Impact ranking in Nigeria a few years ago. The university takes series the importance of social responsibility as a way of helping build up a strong middle class for national development.

The fifth competency is about the leadership, innovation and problem solving for development. This core of leadership is inside and outside the classroom, as the university has one of the most robust co-curricular programs in the entire country. The programme has routinely been selected for many awards as the campus is one of the most engaged in Nigeria and, I would argue, in the world, from my first-hand experiences. With this competency is established to “Build aptitude to apply knowledge, technology, and critical thinking towards practical, real-world problems — especially those relevant to Africa’s development.”

I argue that the traditional approach is not preparing 21st-century learners ready for the workforce as the competency-based approach is doing. To understand the differences, please see

figure 1 below, which outlines a few examples of what we do in the traditional approach and then in the competency-based method.

Figure 1

As I outlined earlier, courses in the general education programme are meant to lead to the high-level knowledge of the core competencies. For easy comparison, see figure 2 for a summary of the courses and the competencies built into the curriculum. The university has an assessment committee, and they collect artifacts from these courses and then select a random sample for review. People outside of the discipline will then review closely and score the assessment via a blind review (not know faculty or student name) to see that competency has been met. This type of assessment is extremely important in the United States Regional Accreditation and our National University Commission (NUC). Both organizations rightfully want to see that the institutions do what they say they are doing and this type of assessment helps validate the assertions.

For comparison and understanding, at the end of this article you will discover a figure 3 – Sample Critical Thinking Assessment Rubric. This was adapted from the American association of Colleges and University and can be freely used.

The examples of the competency-based learning can be examined all over the campus of the American University of Nigeria especially in the classrooms. After a discussion with one of our outstanding professors, Lawal Hussaini, we were given his details of how he implements this important style of learning in his own classroom. Mr Hussaini overseas the university general education programme and routinely helps junior faculty understand how competency-based learning applies to the general education program. He is a sociology professor by discipline and teaches many interdisciplinary courses in the American system.

Mr Lawal wrote, “My understanding of competency-based learning as it relates to critical thinking, one of the courses I teach at the General Education Department is that, it is a student-centered instructional method that enhances critical thinking among students. The world is facing problems such as disasters, poverty, crimes, accidents and dilemmas, and people tend to live more individualistically since the ego has become the primary focus. It cannot be said that such problems will not occur or not affect certain people in the world, but rather that everyone on earth will be directly or indirectly affected by the problem. Critical thinking competence encourages students to come up with new ideas or thoughts about problems faced in the society. In critical thinking and problem solving (AUN 300) class, Students are trained how to select various opinions, so that they can distinguish which opinions are important and which are unimportant, which opinions are true and not true. In trying to inculcate critical thinking competencies, students are assisted to make conclusions by considering data and facts available at their disposal. The competency-based learning in my critical thinking and problem-solving class is anchored on four (4) main phases which are: identification of problem; Exploration of the problem; Problem solving; and follow-up.”

All students in the university have the opportunity to take the AUN300 course on critical thinking and problem solving in their third year. The courses are for upper class students as it is a hands-on approach that allows them to use the foundation skills they have learned in their previous general education courses.

If you are interested in learning more about competency-based learning, how it is assessed and how more courses play into this system, feel free to write us at [email protected]. As we train the next generation of Nigeria and African leaders, we owe it to them and the country to have them prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Figure 3 – Sample Critical Thinking Assessment Rubric

Total Score: ____ / 24
Performance Levels:
• 22–24 | Mastery
• 18–21 | Proficiency
• 14–17 | Approaching
• 6–13 | Beginning