Vice chancellor of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Prof. Florence Obi, has appealed to the minister of Education Tunji Alausa to salvage the institution’s Faculty of Dentistry and Dental Surgery.
The faculty is at a moment in dire need of a strong manpower base to avoid being scrapped.
She made the appeal during an interactive session with journalists at the university’s Conference Hall in Calabar yesterday.
Obi sought the minister’s intervention in facilitating clearance for employment from the director- general of the Budget Office of the Federation.
She also requested the procurement of 16 dental chairs to quicken the visit of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to the institution.
She assured the students, parents and the general public not to panic as the university management was working to resolve the crisis facing the department.
She emphasised that the university cares for its students and was committed to finding solutions to the challenges.
Obi stated that management had concluded arrangements to meet with the leadership of MDCN to brainstorm on the way forward.
Once the dental chairs and academic staff issues are sorted out, the MDCN would be invited to visit the institution, she said.
She said that students from the department had not been asked to go and seek transfer to other institutions on their own, stressing that when the time comes, the management of the institution will be the one to do so.
“We wish to state that the dentistry programme has not lost accreditation nor have the students asked by the University to go and seek admission on their own in other institutions”.
“Once that is done, we would utilise the opportunity and recruit more lecturers in dentistry to shore up the manpower base.
“As soon as the dental chairs and academic staff have been sorted out, then the MDCN will be invited,” Obi said.
