The management of Obafemi Awolowo University OAU has reacted to the withdrawal of accreditation of some courses in the university by the National University Commission.

Pulse earlier reported that the NUC suspended Law, Dentistry, Fine Arts, Botany and Family Nutrition at the university.

Following the suspension of the courses, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board JAMB urged prospective students who selected any of the courses in the just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to change their course or institution.

However, the university in a statement sent to Pulse by a student Ambassador said the school is working to address the issues raised by the NUC.

The statement signed by the University Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju, reads:

The Management of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is aware of the directive by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that the 2018/2019 candidates who applied to study Law, Dentistry, Fine and Applied Arts, Botany and Family Nutrition and Consumer Sciences should either change course or university, due to non-accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

The general accreditation exercise was conducted across all universities in December, 2017 and the non-accreditation of some programmes cut across all universities and is not peculiar to OAU.

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There are 106 programmes in the University of which the five mentioned above have issues with accreditation. Although all these programmes actually had interim status during the last exercise, they were denied accreditation because of the existing NUC regulation which does not allow for back to back interim status.

The University Management is working assiduously to address the issues raised by the NUC. It, therefore, has no doubt that the affected programmes will be restored hopefully in the forthcoming accreditation exercise slated for November 2018. We hereby use this medium to officially appreciate the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for the prompt release of funds to upgrade the existing structures and facilities in the University.

We appreciate the concern of all stakeholders, particularly parents/guardians and prospective students on this development and plead for their understanding.

The Management will continue to do all within its power to uphold and build upon the academic excellence for which the University is known.

OAU is the best university in South-West

However, OAU recently emerged as the best university in South-West Nigeria.

The University won the award at South-West Nigeria Education Awards, organised by Excellent Media Group and held at the University of Ibadan.

Also, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, OAU, Prof Durotoluwa Oyedele, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Oye-Ekiti, Prof Abayomi Fasina; and Dr Tomi Alade of the University of Lagos all emerged as the best lecturers in the region.