Abstract
Digital literacy is now a very important skill for graduates, but its consistent integration into Nigerian universities varies widely across curricula, infrastructure, and faculty expertise. This conceptual review synthesizes contemporary literature on digital, information, media, data, computational, and artificial intelligence literacy’s and re-contextualizes the findings within the national higher education landscape. A phased integration model is advocated, whereby digital literacy is assigned credit-bearing status throughout all degree programmes. Phase 1 establishes foundational competence alongside an ethical framework; Phase 2 integrates disciplinary applications; Phase 3 advances professional project work, teamwork, and varied data competencies; and Phase 4 anchors cumulative learning in capstones, field placements, and publicly accessible digital portfolios. The review includes a staged curriculum blueprint with level-specific learning descriptors, authentic assessment designs, and digital portfolio specifications. Enabling infrastructures and the establishment of sustained industry partnerships are itemized, together with a faculty training progression from basic awareness to peer mentoring. Governance mechanisms are delineated through institutional Senate endorsement pathways, established qualitative and quantitative review procedures, and alignment with national policies on data stewardship and intellectual property. Success will be monitored through initial capability baselines, annual institutional surveys, portfolio examinations, and independent moderation, all supported by a risk framework that identifies access inequalities, annual faculty demands, and procurement issues. The result is a comprehensive framework that integrates policy, curricular design, and assessment procedures with directly observable graduate competencies and can be calibrated to universities of different sizes and resource configurations across Nigeria.
Keywords: Digital Literacy, Nigerian Universities, Curriculum Reform, Quality Assurance, Policy Alignment