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Tag: National Universities Commission

  • Ajasin varsity VC hails NUC accreditation teams

    The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State, Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, has described National Universities Commission (NUC) as a platform for excellence and ethical standards in education.

    The VC stated this while welcoming the NUC accreditation teams visiting the school to verify the state of some courses.

    Ajibefun said NUC had put in efforts that guaranteed progress and improvement in the academic standard of every university, praising members of the accreditation teams drawn from different institutions for making themselves available for the task.

    The VC said: “We all know that accreditation exercise is carried out to look at various programmes and determine areas that should be improved upon in order to ensure high quality of graduates. I want to commend your teams for coming from different locations for this exercise. We hope the assessment of our programme and advice you would give us would help us to improve on our facilities to provide the best produce competitive graduates.

    The three accreditation teams assessed facilities at the school’s Departments of Human Kinetics, Social Studies, and Environmental Biology and Fisheries.

    The leader of the team for the assessment of Human Kinetics, Prof F.B. Adeyanju of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaira, Kaduna State, explained that the team was mandated to ensure quality and strict adherence to regulations.

    She said: “We have observed that AAUA graduates have performed excellently well in several areas, but there are bound to be areas that should be improved upon. We will look at everything and suggest how to improve on them. Our job will be done in accordance to our conscience so that the university will enjoy the progress.”

  • VC praises NUC

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) has been described as a veritable vehicle driving academic excellence and ensuring ethical standards in the top echelon of learning in Nigeria.

    The Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA) Ondo State, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, said this while welcoming three separate accreditation teams from the NUC who visted the university to accredit the Human Kinetics, Social Studies, Environmental Biology and Fisheries.

    Ajibefun said the NUC has put in efforts that have guaranteed progress and improvement in the academic standard of every university across the nation.

    He thanked members of the accreditation teams who were drawn from various institutions across the country for making themselves available for the task at hand.

    “We all know that accreditation exercise is carried out to look at various programmes and determine areas that should be improved upon in order to ensure high quality of graduates.

    “I want to assure you that we will continue to expand our facilities to produce the best graduates.

    “You must have noted that our products have performed excellently in several national exams like the Nigerian Law School Bar exams where our products have consistently led for the past four years. We will not rest on our oars.”

    Speaking, leader of the team for Human Kinetics, Prof. F.B. Adeyanju, from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaira, explained that the body is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring quality and strict adherence to laid-down rules. He said the team would point attention to areas of improvement.

    “We agreed that your graduates have performed excellently well in several areas, but there are bound to be areas that should be improved upon. We will look at everything and suggest how to improve on them. Our job will be done in accordance to our conscience so that the university will enjoy the progress,” she said.

     

  • Fed Govt strengthens ‘Open’ degrees

    Fed Govt strengthens ‘Open’ degrees

    With the Federal Government strengthening the structure for quality assurance of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) education through the National Universities Commission, the Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, has assured Nigerians of the quality of degrees obtained through ODL.

    Adamu doused fears or doubts in some quarters as to the quality of degrees obtained via ODL compared to those from conventional institutions.

    Speaking in Abuja at a ones day symposium on policy and practice in ODL organised by the NUC and University of London, Adamu, who was represented by the Director, Tertiary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. John Ojo, said the government was working hard to ensure more people embrace the ODL because of its potential to provide access to university education.

    “Government is lending strong support to the ongoing efforts of the NUC to promote widespread acceptability of the Open and Distance Learning mode of education within our country and douse any remaining embers of doubt in some quarters as to its quality and parity with degrees obtained via the conventional face-to-face mode.”

    Adamu said the restriction in the number of students of conventional universities meant that many candidates are denied opportunity to get into school yearly.

    He said that Joint Admission Matriculation Board, (JAMB) statistics showed that about 70 percent of qualified applicants are unable to gain admission into Nigerian universities annually.

    The shortfall, the minister said, had resulted in loss of billions of naira yearly through educational tourism.

    However, he said the enrolment capacity of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) exceeded the total capacity of the five first generation universities in Nigeria considerably.

    There is no doubt the ODL has the potentials to significantly address the problem of inadequate access.  The National Open University of Nigeria, (NOUN), the only uni-mode open university in Nigeria, as far back as 2013 had student enrolment figures of over 308, 000 with about 180, 000 being active students.”

    He urged all universities to comply with regulatory guidelines for qualitative development of the Nigeria Universities System as laid down by government through NUC.

    The NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, said the symposium was a testament to the fact that the Commission was dogged in providing quality input to the delivery of degree programmes irrespective of the mode.

  • EKSU VC lauds NUC’s approval

    The Vice-Chancellor, Ekiti State University (EKSU), Prof. Samuel Oye Bandele, has applauded the approval of 11 new academic courses for Ekiti State University by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

    The Vice-Chancellor reeled out the programmes to include: Library and Information Science, Actuarian Science, Insurance Marketing, Cooperative and Rural Development, Tourism Studies and Educational Technology. Others are: Entrepreneurship, Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, Anatomy and Physiology.

  • Don seeks review of PG in Communication

    A professor of Public Relations and Advertising, Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo  Rotimi Williams Olatunji, has urged that National Universities Commission (NUC)  to allow more people across diverse disciplines to take up post graduate programmes in Communication.

    He said the discipline had gone beyond the old Department of Mass Communication which serves as home for communication studies across tertiary institutions nationwide.

    Olatunji said many of those who call the shots in journalism, Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communication today did not study journalism, but yet were able to excel in the field even more than trained journalists.

    Olatunji who is of LASU School of Communications, delivered his inaugural lecture titled: “Advertising, advertisement and the rest of us” at the university premises

    “Communication has its fibrous roots in human communication, mass communication, writing, the social sciences, including marketing, psychology, sociology and anthropology, philosophy, law and pure science. We can no longer afford to be narrow in our admission criteria to recruit postgraduate students into communication disciplines particularly advertising and public relations. The global trend is to recruit candidates of diversified academic backgrounds into postgraduate programmes and allied communication disciplines. We must open up the space here in Nigeria, with LASU School of Communication setting the pace for others to follow,” Olatunji said.

    Speaking on his research, Olatunji said the use of negative sex appeal by agencies and advertising practitioners, does not inspire brand loyalty.

    Olatunji’s said he found that negative sex appeal puts off potential buyers and creates apathy in the brand. Therefore, he suggested that virtues such as loveliness, beauty, attractiveness, fun, and the like should be explored as they have a very strong appeal.

    He said:”The research I embarked upon shows that the use of negative sex appeals in advertisement is generally considered demeaning, amoral, and sometimes exaggerated and do not necessarily make advertising interesting or appealing. Respondents agreed that attractive female models and positive use of sex appeals in advertising brings benefits to brands. On the other hand, negative uses of sexual images in advertisement do not necessarily guarantees brand loyalty; do not readily sell the advertised brand, and do not significantly and positively influence purchase decision. Therefore, negative sex appeal do not build brand loyalty.”

     

  • Only 30 per cent UTME candidates ‘ll be admitted this year, says NUC

    Only 30 per cent UTME candidates ‘ll be admitted this year, says NUC

    OWING to limited spaces in the universities, only 30 per cent out of the 1.7 million candidates who wrote the unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) will be admitted this year, National Universities Commission (NUC) Executive Secretary Prof. Abubakar Rasheed has said.

    Prof. Rasheed spoke at a one-day public hearing on the regulatory conflict between JAMB and universities in offering admission in Nigeria.

    The hearing was organised by Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund on Tuesday.

    The NUC boss said the limited spaces in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have made admission crisis inevitable.

    According to Rasheed, the only way to avert admission crisis is to either expand access or create more universities to accommodate students.

    “The crisis of admission in this country is inevitable. Unless we expand spaces, we shall continue to have admission crisis in this country.

    “Every exam has its own problem. We believe JAMB exam is credible and all of us operating in the system respect the results of JAMB exam,” he said.

    JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede said there was no conflict between JAMB and universities.

    Prof. Oloyede said most of the candidates, who sit for its examination annually do not have the required qualification to gain admission.

    He said: “It is not true that we have 1.7 million candidates that are ready to go into the Nigerian university system. Of the 1.7 million that took the exam, I can say conveniently that not more than 30 per cent of them are not prepared for admission; they are just trying. They do not have the five O’Level required to go into the university.

    “Secondly, let me also let us realise that 10 per cent of the 1.7 million that we see or 1.9 million as the case may be, they are not what can be categorised as belonging to the net enrolment ratio for entering tertiary education. They belong to the gross enrolment ratio.

    “Eighty per cent of candidates sitting at the point of sitting do not have the O’Level at all. They are awaiting results. So, when we are building our theories and analysis, we need to be very cautious.

    “If you score 400 over 400 if you do not have the five O’Level, you cannot come into the university. The basic qualification is the five O’Level.”

  • Use your talents to develop Nigeria, Okebukola urges graduating students

    Use your talents to develop Nigeria, Okebukola urges graduating students

    Prof. Peter Okebukola, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, (NUC)  has urged graduating students of the Caleb University, Imota, Lagos to deploy their God-given talents and quality training to develop Nigeria.

    Okebukola, who is the Chairman, Board of Trustee of the institution, made the appeal at the institution`s seventh convocation on Friday in Lagos.

    He told the graduates to allow their entrepreneurial spirit come alive and stick to the noble ideas and core values of the institution.

    He listed such core values to include Godliness, innovation, service, integrity, teamwork, excellence and creativity.

    “To my ‘Emerald Graduating Class’, the entire country looks forward to you to be God-Solution Persons (GSP’s).

    “You must be ready to deploy your God-given talents and the quality training, you have received at Caleb, to action beginning from your time at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme,’’ Okebukola said.

    Brig.-Gen. Mobolaji Johnson, (rtd) who is the University`s Chancellor, urged all the alumni to be worthy ambassadors of the university.

    Johnson commended the Council, Senate, and Management of the institution for maintaining high academic and moral standard.

    Prof. Fola Tayo, the University Pro-Chancellor, advised the graduating students to be an unusual and strange person, “who is out to make a change’’.

    “Be an odd person that cannot be fitted into the Nigerian corrupt and inhuman cage.

    “Be a man or a woman, who can ask questions and will never compromise the standard of established laws, regulations and procedure.

    “Remember, you are answerable to God, not man and in the choice between obeying man or God, you are enjoined to be on God’s side,’’ Tayo said.

    Also, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Daniel Aina, remarked that the seventh set of graduates produced by the university, “comprise of the most brilliant minds, who will positively affect the future of Nigeria and Africa’’.

    “That they are the seventh set itself is a study in excellence and perfection, and for us, that is a journey and it begins with these privileged individuals,’’ he said.

    The VC said the institution produced 405 graduates this year as against 355 graduates in 2016.

    He said 361 out of the 405 graduates received the Bachelor degree honours while 44 post-graduate students received the Master’s degrees.

    “In the breakdown of the 409 graduating students, 14 persons made First Class honours, 142 are in Second Class Upper, 162 are in Second Class Lower divisions while 47 finished with Third Class division.

    “Others in the class of higher degrees were 12 for Master Business Administration and 32 MSc Architecture’’, he said.

    Aina named the best graduating student as Miss Elizabeth Nejo from the Department of Mass Communication.

    Nejo made a Commutative Grade Point Aggregate (CGPA) of 4.85.

    According to the VC, Mr Qadri Ahmed of the Department of Architecture is the best post-graduate graduating students with a CGPA of 4.91.

    He announced that the certificate and transcript of the new graduates were ready, signed and would be issued to them, once they have been cleared by the university. (NAN)

  • NUC approves medicine, others for FUD

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) has given the Federal University, Dutse (FUD) in Jigawa State approval to run five academic programmes in the College of Medical and Health Sciences beginning from the 2017/2018 academic session.

    This was contained in a statement  by the university’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Malam Abdullahi Yahaya Bello, which also listed six other programmes that secured full accreditation after the May/June accreditation exercise.

    The programmes under the Collage of Medical and Health Science are: “Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Medicine, (MBBS); Bachelor of Science (B.Sc. Biology); Bachelor of Science, (B.Sc. Human Anatomy); Bachelor of Science, (B.Sc. Human Physiology) and Bachelor of Science, (B.Sc. Biochemistry)”.

    According to the statement, the approval was contained in a letter dated September 15, 2017 to the Vice Chancellor, Prof Fatima Batul Mukhtar, and signed by the Director of Academic Planning, Dr. Gidado Bello Kumo, on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed.

    The commission had in May raised a panel of experts to undertake resource verification of the proposed academic programmes with a view to assessing the human and material resources available for their establishment.

    The letter reads in part: “I am directed to inform you that the Executive Secretary has approved the establishment of the full mode of academic programmes to be run in the Main Campus of the University, effective from 2017/2018 academic sessions.

    “I am to add that the approval does not cover part-time mode of delivery of programmes, as all programmes must bear only the approved titles and nomenclatures and any change will require the re-approval of the Commission.”

    The other programmes that secured full accreditation were: English, Biology, Physics, Political Science, Zoology, Botany and Chemistry.  Biotechnology, however, was granted interim accreditation, while Computer Science was denied.

  • NUC begins curricula reform

    The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, says the commission has commenced the reformation of the curricula of the Nigerian University System (NUS).

    He said there was need to design Nigeria’s curricula to meet the present and future challenges to better equip graduates and prepare them to fit into future roles capable of contributing significantly to national development and global competitiveness.

    Speaking at the opening of a week-long training on Professional Development Course for Leaders of Teaching and Learning in Nigerian Universities organised by the NUC and the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, in Abuja, he said the reforms would prepare university graduates for future jobs.

    He said: “As part of concerted efforts at continuous improvement in the quality of university education in Nigeria, the commission has already triggered the process of curricular reforms in the Nigeria University System, cognizant of the very dynamic nature of the frontier of knowledge especially in today’s technology driven knowledgeable economy.

    “The curricular reforms are also driven by the commission’s awareness of the complexity of the skill sets that will be required of graduates of our universities, some of whom may be expected to function at jobs that may not be in existence.

    “It is incontrovertible that a critical success factor in the design and implementation of such contemporary and equally futuristic curricula is the availability of a critical mass of academics in Nigerian universities who have not only the cutting-edge content, subject matter knowledge, but who also possess up-to-date pedagogical skills and competencies  to facilitate the realisation of the anticipated learning outcomes and desirable student learning achievements.”

    Represented by the Research, Innovation and Information Technology Director, Dr. Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, Rasheed said the training was to sharpen the dons’ skills to meet the contemporary challenges.

    He said: “Our belief is that if we organise periodical professional development courses for our lecturers in modular formats, we will achieve the same objective of quality. This quality will enable us to have better university graduates.

    “This partnership with the University of Sussex will ensure a quality hands-on training of our lecturers. It is also based on train-the-trainers as the delegates will return to their institutions to spread their skills.”

    The Pro-Chancellor for Research, University of Sussex, Prof Michael Davies, said the training would expose the lecturers to “modern educational skills and facilities”, which the university was known for.

    The Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the Federal Government would continue to support initiatives to enhance quality university education in the country.

    The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sunny Echono, said the ministry would continue to support efforts aimed at honing the pedagogic skills of lecturers.

    He said: “We will continue to support initiatives which seek to enhance quality education in Nigeria.

    “All the efforts aimed at honing the pedagogic skills of our lecturers will receive unconditional support of the ministry.

    “I understand that this training will cover up-to-date and informed approaches to meet the contemporary competitive educational terrain.”

    The one-week training had “Transformative Higher Education Pedagogy and Practice,” as its theme.

     

  • FUOYE students don’t study under trees – VC

    FUOYE students don’t study under trees – VC

    The Vice-Chancellor of  Federal University, Oye-Ekiti  (FUOYE), Prof. Kayode Soremekun, on Wednesday dismissed a report that students on  the Ikole  campus of the institution  were studying under trees.

    The vice chancellor, in a statement issued by the spokesman of the institution, Mr Godfrey Bakji, described the report as  false and misleading.

    Soremekun said apart  from the structures he inherited,  he had  made unprecedented efforts  in improving the state of facilities and constructing new ones.

    The report entitled, “We study under trees’ was published on Tuesday in a national daily.

    Soremekun, however, said:  “I wish to dismiss this statement as not only misleading and false, but a deliberate attempt to malign the integrity of the institution.

    “Aside from the structures I inherited, I have made unprecedented efforts  in improving the state of facilities and constructing new ones.

    “This is borne out of my thirst for rapid growth and development of the institution.

    “In less than a year of my stewardship, I had  attracted 19 new academic programmes and two more faculties to the young institution,” he said.

    The vice chancellor said a resource verification team comprising officials from the National Universities Commission, JAMB and Federal Ministry of Education had visited the institution before approving the programmes.

    “This is to ensure that FUOYE has commensurate facilities to accommodate the new faculties as well as the intending candidates.

    “The resource verification team scored the young FUOYE high, hence its approval.

    “ Therefore, one wonders why any student would say they study under trees in FUOYE, most especially on the Ikole campus that accommodates  only two  out of the seven faculties,’’ he added.

    Soremekun  also said  his administration was  simultaneously developing both the  Oye-Ekiti and Ikole-Ekiti campuses in order to make the university a world-class institution.

    “It is worthy  to mention that the institution is ranked 14th by the National Universities Commission in 2017.

    “This feat could not have been achieved without commensurate sacrifice by the vice chancellor to create conducive learning environment for students and workers respectively.

    “I can assure you that Ikole campus will not be sidelined,’’ he said.