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UniCal responds to COREN on alleged non-accreditation of engineering courses

Gabriel Egbe, Registrar of the University of Calabar (UniCal), stated on Tuesday that the university had no record of failed accreditation.

Mr Egbe, speaking on behalf of the University’s administration, was responding to a warning supposedly issued by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, in a publication.

He stated that the supposed warning was regarding the accreditation of engineering courses at the university.

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

The registrar noticed that the publication was false and questioned why COREN could be credited with such a publication.

He emphasised that this was especially important because COREN was tasked with assuring professional accreditation of engineering degrees in Nigerian universities.

According to him, when COREN’s request for professional accreditation was last heard, the professional body was instructed that the National Universities Commission (NUC) must first perform its own accreditation before any other professional body. Mr Egbe stated that this was consistent with the usual procedure.

“In November 2023, the NUC paid a visit to the university to accredit all programmes due for the exercise, including those in the five departments of the Faculty of Engineering. The results of that exercise is still expected. The University has no record of failing accreditation with its engineering programmes, as COREN claims.

“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

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