By Ajayi Mary and Ugwuoke Kingsley
All is now set for the Department of Mass Communication to receive the accreditation team from the National Universities Commission.
Information reaching UnijosEchoOnline indicated that the four-man team which is made up of three professors and an official from NUC arrived Jos yesterday and are billed for a courtesy call to the Vice-Chancellor before proceeding to the department for the exercise.
Our source also told us that the department, led by Professor Victor Ayedun-Aluma has made every effort to ensure that the department gets full accreditation.
“We have basically rebranded the department. All our laboratories and studios are functional; the TV studio, Radio station, Newsroom, PRAD lab, the Shell Computer lab, Photo studio and the Learning Material Centre. Our curriculum is equally good, so we are hopeful of a full accreditation”, the source disclosed.
Similarly the Deputy Director of Academic Planning, Mrs. Felicia Meekyaa disclosed in an interview on Thursday that NUC has a grading system in which institutions are assessed in four core areas which include staff mix, curriculum, library/physical facilities and funding.
According to her, if a programme scores 70% and above in these four key areas, the program is given full accreditation which will last for five years, but if a program scores below 70%, they will be given an interim accreditation which will last for two years after which the NUC team will come back again.
She further stated that a programme that scores below 60% is denied accreditation which means that the programme cannot admit new students.
According to her, twenty programmes were scheduled for accreditation but the university is expecting sixteen teams because some departments have more than one programme.
“So far, seven teams have come and gone; Chemistry came in yesterday, Mass Communication, Geography and Pharmacy is Monday while 10th December is Zoology and Computer Science; Microbiology will be on the 13th”. She said.
When asked about the measures that have been put in place to ensure a successful accreditation, Mrs. Meekyaa stated that there have been meetings to ensure that the accreditation for all programs are successful.
According to her, the Directorate of Academic Planning extracts the deficiencies gotten from results of accreditation when they come in from the NUC and writes to the school management to improve in those deficiencies.
She stated that some of the deficiencies are sometimes not solved due to porosity of fund. She however, further advised that the issue of funding should not hinder the institution from doing its best to improve the programs.
“Funding is one of the main issue, however, a program will never fail because of funding because funding is a government thing and everyone knows that it has not been adequate over the years”. She reiterated.
Photo Credit: Ajayi Mary
