The Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja (UniAbuja) , Prof. Michael Adikwu, said
the institution now has full accreditation to offer courses in Agriculture,
Engineering and Veterinary Medicine.
Adikwu disclosed this at a Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja
on Wednesday.
He said that the initial accreditation challenge experienced by the institution had
been overcome.
“Let me start with agriculture. That was one of the courses that were
problematic; we have full accreditation for that now; so we don’t have problem in
that area,’’ he said.
“Before I came on board, there was also a problem with engineering; some of the
students were farmed out, sent to other universities.
“So, they (the university) had some contact with them and there were few
courses they needed to come back and complete and that has been done, and we
have graduated two sets put together.
‘’So, we do not have problem with that currently,’’ he said.
On veterinary medicine, Adikwu said that the issue with the course had been
sorted out and that the department had started graduating students.
He said that the only department in the university yet to be accredited was
medicine, adding that it was being expected.
“They have had the first accreditation; they were successful.
“For medicine, you have to do serial accreditations; they needed to do one for the
basic clinical sciences and then the final accreditation.
“So, we are preparing for that and very soon, they too will cross the fence,” he
explained.
He said that the university had acquired the basic infrastructure needed for
teaching medical students, adding that the institution presently had three sets of
students ready for graduation.
The vice chancellor disclosed that the university recently lost its accreditation for
law and microbiology programmes because it overshot its admission quota.
He explained that the loss of accreditation for the courses could only stop the
university from admitting fresh students for them, adding, however, that the
matter would be resolved soon.
He said that the loss of accreditation for law was because the number of
students admitted for the programme was high.
According to him, the Council for Legal Education said we should admit 100
students but we were admitting more than 400.
“I know of some other universities which are taking 700 students and they also
lost accreditation. Once that is corrected, we will get our accreditation back,’’
Adikwu said.
“We also do not have accreditation for microbiology; I do not think that it is
punitive; I think that it is corrective.
“Once the number of our students normalises, we will get our accreditation back,”
he stated.
The vice-chancellor, however, said that the corrective measure would not affect
the students currently in the law and microbiology programmes, stating that they
would graduate soon.
According to him, ”our Faculty of Law is doing very well as it has performed
wonderfully in both local and international completions.”