*Says UNICAL’s Engineering Programme To Get NUC Accreditation November
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The Vice Chancellor of University of Calabar (UNICAL), Prof. Florence Obi, has dismissed a claim by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) that the university engineering courses were not accredited by the professional body.
She said UNICAL engineering courses were just in their third year, getting ready for the National Universities Commission’s (NUC’s) accreditation in November 2023.
Prof. Obi said when COREN approached her for the engineering course accreditation, she told them to hold on until the institution is through with NUC accreditation slated for November/December 2023.
She added that when COREN came to UNICAL for engineering resource verification, her institution passed.
She said the reason she objected to COREN accreditation before NUC was because UNICAL was being supervised by NUC and not COREN.
The VC said the university was yet to graduate any set of engineering students.
Stressing the implication of allowing COREN to come first for accreditation before NUC, Prof. Obi said: “If COREN comes for accreditation and says we have passed and NUC comes later and says we have failed, NUC will stop us from running the programme.
“Our engineering programme is a new programme, which attracts NUC verification and is only due for accreditation this year.
“We have not graduated anybody. We have engineering students who are in their third year. NUC is coming for the first accreditation by November/December.
“Parents and our students should please note that the University of Calabar got approval to start five of the seven programmes in 2020. The programmes are due for the first accreditation in November/December this year and the university is preparing to host the NUC team as scheduled.”
She said last month, the university got another approval from NUC to run Electrical Electronics and Computer Engineering after a successful resource verification of the programmes in April.
“As it stands today, seven engineering programmes have been approved for the university.
“We shall be admitting students into the last approved programmes this admission year. This is verifiable from NUC.
“It should be noted that NUC is our supervising agency and the only body that approves or disapproves the running of degree programmes for universities.
“COREN as a professional body should be more concerned with licensing its professionals. Their interest in quality control should come in only when NUC has approved the programme and not before.
“Universities should not be caught in the covert superiority of professional bodies with NUC, rather it is expected that COREN and indeed all professional bodies should be working together with NUC for the overall good of the Nigerian university system and the quality of our products,” the vice chancellor added.
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