Two panels of accreditation from the National Universities Commission (NUC), Monday began collation of data towards accreditation of seven new regular degree programmes in the College of Education, Ilorin.
The degree programmes are being run in affiliation with the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti.
The programmes are Biology, Chemistry, English, French, Economics, Social Studies and Early Childhood Care.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the accreditation exercise in Ilorin, the leader of the NUC team, Professor Oyaziwo Aluede, said the accreditation is a process and the team was at the institution for inspection that would hopefully lead to accreditation of the seven degree courses.
He said the team would collate data and submit to the NUC, declaring that “it’s the NUC that has the final say.”
In his remarks, the acting provost of the college, Dr. Jimoh Ayinla , assured the visiting team that the college has all it takes to run the programmes, having gotten the necessary support from the state government.
“As an institution, we have gone through different stages of scrutiny before we got to the point of this accreditation. In 2018, a resource assessment visit was conducted by the NUC and based on the visit, the management committee of NUC, during its meeting on Friday, August 31, 2018, approved the affiliation arrangement of this College with Ekiti state university and seven programmes were approved for studies in our college.
“Course accreditation by the national universities commission is germane to the credibility of degrees awarded by a university. Taking or studying a non-accredited course in any tertiary institution is tantamount to a colossal waste of resources. Hence the need for what we are starting today. I wish to reiterate the commitment of the college management and other officers to the success of this very important academic exercise.
“As a teacher training institution of long standing, I am proud to inform you that our College is blessed with learned and ever-learning scholars in various fields. Our teaching staff are research inclined and ever ready to do more to ensure standard.
“Our College has all it takes to go into this accreditation exercise; human and infrastructure. We have well-equipped laboratories and a main Library stocked with up-to-date reading materials. Our e-library is equally of international standard. We have enough lecture halls that are conducive for learning and we are still putting up more to take care of the ever increasing demands by admission seekers into our institution for their degree programmes,” he said.
The provost also appreciated Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and Commissioner for Tertiary Education for giving the institution support towards ensuring that the accreditation exercise was being carried out successfully.
