By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, has threatened to blacklist three universities for running engineering programmes on expired or failed accreditation.
Briefing newsmen at the COREN headquarters in Abuja on Friday, the President of the council, Engr Sadiq Abubakar, who was represented by the Registrar, Engr Ademola Adisa Bello, said it was part of the resolutions reached at the 179th Ordinary Council Meeting of 7th September, 2023.
He said, “COREN, in its commitment to ensure that engineering is regulated in Nigeria in line with global best practice to improve the quality of life and promote sustainable development, deemed it important to notify the general public that three universities are running engineering programmes with expired accreditation status.
The affected universities are: Modibbo Adamawa University, Yola in Adamawa State; University of Abuja, UniAbuja, and Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma in Edo State.
Breakdown shows that for Modibbo Adamawa University, accreditation for
Agricultural Engineering failed, while that of Civil Engineering expired 11 October, 2020, and those of Elect/Elect, Chemical, and Chemical Engineerings expired 10 October, 2021.
For Abuja, Chemical and Civil Engineerings expired 26 March, 2020, while those of Electronic and Mechanical Engineerings expired 2022.
For Ambrose Alli University, accreditation for both Mechanical and Elect/Elect Engineerings expired 12 November, 2020.
In addition, COREN revealed with regret that University of Calabar in Cross Rivers State and Technical University Ibadan in Oyo State are running programmes without approval by COREN.
According to the council, Calabar is currently running engineering programmes up to 300 level and Technical College Ibadan, up to 500 level, without resource verification/ accreditation by COREN.
Describing the running of the programmes as illegal, the COREN President went further to say that all the five universities had been officially notified to call for accreditation of their programmes to which they did not respond.
COREN thereby called on the affected universities to rectify the abnormalies and get the programmes accredited before commencement of the next academic session or risk being blacklisted, even as it also reminded engineering practitioners in the country to obtain their Annual Practice Licence, APL, for 2023 in order to comply with the law regulating engineering in Nigeria.
Engr Bello explained that in the event where the affected universities or any of them fails to meet the ultimatum given them to rectify their status, COREN, through its Engineering Accreditation Committee, (EAC), would be forced to impose the penalties as prescribed by the law, which according to him, is withdrawal of accreditation or non-recognition of graduates of such programmes for registration as practitioners or both.
According to him, if at the expiration of the deadline those or any of the institutions fail to oblige, students found to be offering the programmes over the period will not be recognised upon graduation.
He advised that such students and their guardians in their own interest had better be on their toe to ensure that their institution do the needful within the stipulated time.
