Amid claims by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), that engineering courses at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), were not accredited, the vice chancellor, Professor Florence Banku Obi, said the courses are due for accreditation soon.
Obi, who dismissed the claims by COREN, said the UNICAL engineering courses are just in their third year, getting ready for the National Universities Commission’s accreditation in November/December 2023.
According to the vice chancellor, 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.
She said the reason she objected to COREN accreditation before NUC was because UNICAL is being supervised by NUC and not COREN.
The VC said that the university was yet to graduate any set of engineering students.
Stressing the implication of allowing COREN to come first for accreditation before NUC, the vic chancellor 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. We must first get NUC accreditation before we can welcome COREN to our school.
“Parents and our students should please note that the University of Calabar got approval to start 5 of the 7 programs back in 2020. The programmes are due for the first accreditation in Nov/December this year and the university is preparing to host the NUC teams as scheduled.
The VC said just last month, the university got another approval from NUC to run Electrical Electronics and Computer Engineering after a successful resource verification of the programs in April. As it stands today, seven engineering programmes have been fully approved for the university.
“We shall be admitting students into the last approved programs 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 programs for universities.
“COREN as a professional body should be more concerned with licensing her professionals. Their interest in quality control should come in only when NUC has approved the program and not before.
