University Of Calabar Denies Record Of Failed Accreditation, Counters COREN’s Warning

Gabriel Egbe, Registrar, University of Calabar,, UniCal, on Tuesday said that the institution had no record of failed accreditation.

Mr Egbe, in a statement on behalf of the University management, was reacting to a warning allegedly made by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, in a publication.

He said that the alleged warning was over the accreditation of Engineering courses in the university.

According to the registrar, the title of the alleged publication credited to COREN is “Get Properly Accredited or Risk Blacklisting, Engineering Council warns UniCal, Adamawa Varsity.”

The registrar noted that the publication was untrue and also wondered why COREN should allegedly be credited with such publication.

He stressed that this was more pertinent as COREN was saddled with the responsibility of ensuring professional accreditation of Engineering programmes in Nigerian Universities.

According to him, when COREN’s agitation for professional accreditation last came up, the professional body was duly informed that the National Universities Commission (NUC) must first conduct its accreditation before any professional body.

Mr Egbe said that this was in line with the established procedure.

“In November 2023, NUC visited the institution for accreditation of all programmes that were due for the exercise including programmes in the five departments of the faculty of Engineering.

The result of that exercise is still being awaited. The University has no record of failed accreditation with its engineering programmes as COREN is making people believe.

“It is on the strength of the outcome that COREN will be officially invited by the university to come for its professional accreditation.

“If COREN feels that it cannot wait for the NUC results then it should write to the University like other professional bodies are doing, giving us dates for their visits,” he said.

The registrar asserted that using the public space to promote a campaign of ill-will and damage to the name of UniCal under the guise of rolling out a recommendation at its 181st Ordinary Council Meeting was not acceptable.

He called for caution from COREN adding that as a professional body they should be more concerned with promoting and nurturing their would-be professionals.