An accreditation team con
stituted by the National Universities Commission (NUC) last week gave its nod to the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Port Harcourt following a second round of inspection of facilities in the faculty.
Speaking after the inspection at the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee Room, leader of the team, Professor Cecilia Igwillo of the University of Lagos, praised the university for putting in place the machinery that generally met the requirements stipulated by the National Universities Commission for accreditation of the faculty.
“We have gone round and examined facilities, books, journals and other things that are necessary for the accreditation of the faculty and from what we have seen so far, I can say that we are impressed with the effort made by the university to get the faculty ready for the exercise.
“From our viewpoint, the objectives and philosophy of the faculty are clearly stated, the curriculum is adequate and the course evaluation standard of test is of good quality. The external assessors are qualified and the course content and delivery are adequate.
“Staff-student ratio meets the NUC guideline and 84 per cent of teaching staff have their doctorate degrees in the various disciplines with competent hands manning the faculty set up.
“There are new sets of equipment which are standard for quality teaching and research and the environment is generally safe for academic activities. We also saw the necessary safety gadgets in place to handle emergency situatioanas,” Professor Igwillo remarked, commending the university’s administration for promptly rising to the occasion following observations made by the team in an earlier accreditation visit to the faculty.
While praising the university for its giant strides in staff training and development, and for subscribing to current databases in the library, including provision of three buildings to serve as offices and classrooms,Professor Igwillo, however, observed that some of the offices and classrooms were fairly furnished and would require improvements.
She urged the  management of the institution to move quickly to rectify a few areas that did not meet the stringent requirements of the accreditation team.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Joseph Ajienka, stressed the need to have the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences fully accredited to complement the college of health sciences in the training of quality health personnel in the institution.
“As a university, we are doing everything possible to have a firmly entrenched faculty of pharmaceutical sciences that will stand the test of time in training personnel for the medical and allied sectors.
“We may not have put everything you want in place, but we are fully committed to properly positioning the faculty on a strong footing to discharge its statutory mandate of training globally certified Pharmacists.
“It is, therefore, very important that you encourage our concerted efforts to build a world-class faculty of pPharmaceutical sciences in this university”, he said.
The VC stated that periodic accreditation exercises were crucial to strengthening the quality of tertiary education in the country, noting that “proper implementation of such exercises would determine the future and quality of education in Nigeria as they help universities to rectify observed defects in their programmes”.
Other members of the team were Professors Chika Mbah (University of Nigeria, Nsukka), Jacob Kolawole (University of Jos), Adamu Yakasai (Ahmadu Bello University) and a representative of the NUC, Dr. Jimoh Ajani.