ABUAD: a unique University.
The Chairman of the NUC Accreditation Team to Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Prof. Ogoh Alubo, has expressed utmost satisfaction with the spate of development and the quantum of facilities on ground in the five-year old university which has been acknowledged by national and international stakeholders, including UNESCO which described it as a shining beacon of excellence in tertiary education.
Alubo last week led three Accreditation Teams for five programmes in three Colleges in the University. They are Human Nutrition & Dietetics and Medical Laboratory Sciences in the College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Geology and Computer Science in the College of Sciences and Social Justice in the College of Social & Management Sciences.
Speaking at the pre-accreditation meeting last Wednesday, Alubo expressed happiness that what he saw on ground was the handiwork of a single Nigerian individual, an attestation to the fact that the future of good quality and functional education is indeed bright in the country.
According to him, accreditation serves many purposes including that of meeting certain set standards and that of engendering respect in the hearts of people, particularly the stakeholders and prospective patrons of the university.
To be able to do a thorough job, he asked for maximum cooperation from the university by being open and making whatever information and materials the team asked for available, particularly as he said “this is an age of evidenced-based judgment”.
He assured the university that the team will be fair in its assessment and judgment and so the university had nothing to fear. He however emphasized that even though they will be transparent in their assignment, the NUC, the Regulatory Body for university education in the country, will not hesitate to wield the big stick whenever the need arises. After all, he added, the NUC withdrew the licences of some unnamed universities in the recent past.
In his response, the Representative of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Prof. Israel Orubuloye, OON, who stood in for the Founder and Chancellor of the University, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, pointed out that the university is used to both Resource Verification and Accreditation and that has made it to see and appreciate the place and import of accreditation as an opportunity for external bodies like the NUC to tell the university what it has done well and what it needs to improve upon.
The renowned professor of Sociology stressed that the university was aware that an accreditation exercise is not an inquisition, but that of ensuring quality and to ensure that the university complies with set standards and global best practices.
According to him, it is because the of this knowledge that the university keeps on improving on its facilities and equipment on a daily basis to ensure that the university develops its students to become total and all-round young men and women, a development which makes it mandatory for all students to study Chinese, French, Agriculture and engage in Leadership and Entrepreneurial training no matter their course of study.