Plateau State varsity to get accredication soon – NUC boss

The Plateau State University, Bokkos, will soon have all its 17 courses accredited, the National Universities Commission (NUC) has assured.

NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie, who gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), when he visited the university on Monday, blamed the lingering accreditation problem on “the failure of past Plateau governments to do the needful”.

NAN reports that the university which was established 10 years ago and currently has over 2,000 students in 17 departments in four faculties, had existed without any accreditation from the NUC.

Okojie blamed the lingering problem of accreditation on the past governments that “just refused to do the right thing”.

The NUC boss said that the issue would soon be a thing of the past, since the current Plateau administration was doing all it could to ensure things were put aright.

“We seriously sympathize with our students for all the pains and trauma they have gone through as a result of the lack of accreditation of the university.

“We told the former administrations the right things to do, but they never heeded.

“Be that as it may, I want to assure you that the turning point of this university is by the corner; I have the pen and the paper, very soon, most of your courses will get accredited,” he said.

Okojie commended the university for the “slow but steady progress it was making”, and called on the Plateau government to sustain the support to make for optimal productivity.

He, however, decried the dearth of qualified members of staff in the university, and urged its administrators to sponsor their staff for further studies.

“The university must do more to help its teachers to obtain PhD s.

“The school is making steady progress, but they need more of quality staff and infrastructural development.

“So, I urge the state government to ensure that adequate funds are released to the school in order to meet up with our standard,” he said.

Okojie charged the university’s staff to avoid unwholesome activities, especially the corrupt tendencies to victimize innocent students.

He also urged the university to incorporate its host communities into its activities, so as promote mutual affection and respect.

“Let the host community feel the university and let the university also enjoy the support of the community, that way, much will be achieved,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Danjuma Sheni, told NAN that staff development was of utmost concern to his administration.

“We have a strong staff development programme; currently, more than 25 of our staff are in foreign universities pursuing their PhD programmes.

”We intend to make it a routine thing where each year, we will send not less than 17 staff for studies.

“I want to make sure that by the time I complete my tenure, we will have a minimum of 85 staff with PhDs,” he said.

Sheni assured that the university would do all within its powers to ensure that its courses were accredited by the NUC without further delay.

Source: The Guardian