TheCable

The management of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) has debunked the claim that the institution is running some of its engineering programmes on an expired accreditation status.

The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) had listed UniAbuja among some of the public universities found to be running engineering programmes on an expired accreditation status.

COREN is the statutory body of the federal government that regulates and controls the education, training, and practice of engineering in Nigeria.

The council said the chemical engineering and civil engineering accreditation at UniAbuja expired on March 26, 2020.

The regulatory body added that UniAbuja’s electronics engineering and mechanical engineering accreditation also expired on April 20, 2022.

Sadiq Abubakar, COREN’s registrar, said it is in the interest of members of the public to know the accreditation status before applying to study for degree programmes at the named institutions.

Responding to the backlash that followed, the UniAbuja management described COREN’s statement as misleading.

In a statement signed by Habib Yakoob, public relations officer (PRO), the management of UniAbuja said the claim was an attempt to undermine the integrity of engineering programmes at the university.

“In 2015, UniAbuja received full accreditation of its Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering programmes as well as interim accreditation of its Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering programmes,” the statement reads.

“Since then, the University has successfully graduated numerous cohorts of students, many of whom have gone on to make significant contributions in their respective fields to national development.

“To attempt to delegitimise such a breakthrough via a press conference by the COREN registrar who, until recently, doubled as the external examiner for one of the engineering programmes in our university, smacks of blackmail.

“The University of Abuja has never shied away from exposing its facilities to regulatory bodies, more so when a lot of rapid infrastructural and academic developments have been taking place in the university.

“Just a couple of days ago, the university received good news from the National Universities Commission (NUC) approving three of its engineering programmes.

“The programmes were approved, along with 23 others presented by the University during the resource verification exercise of the NUC.

“That the University of Abuja acknowledges the importance of accreditation does not confer on COREN the right to stampede our institution through a needless press conference.

“COREN should develop a better mechanism of relating with universities, instead of its current ‘headmaster approach’ to issues that demand cordiality.”