The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved medical fellowships awarded by recognised professional medical colleges as equivalent to PhD degrees, ending a long-running debate about academic qualifications required for medical professionals in Nigerian universities. The decision follows years of disagreement over whether medical doctors must obtain a traditional PhD before advancing to the rank of professor in academic medicine. In 2016, the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria set up a committee that concluded that a PhD should remain the qualification for teaching basic medical sciences. However, the committee also recommended that teaching clinical aspects of medical programmes should require a fellowship from the National Postgraduate Medical College of Ni...