By Rotimi Ojomoyela

THE Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, and the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, ABUAD, have warned that it is illegal and fraudulent for universities to run courses that have not been accredited by National Universities Commission, NUC, and other regulatory agencies.

COREN specifically stated that no university and other tertiary institutions should run any engineering course without passing through the scrutiny of the body, saddled with the responsibility of regulating the profession in the country.

The institutions gave the warning on yesterday when COREN’s accreditation team visited ABUAD’s College of Engineering to assess the university.

Speaking during an interactive session with the university’s management, COREN team leader, Prof. John Olorunmaiye, said the visitation was one of the requirements for the attainment of provisional signatory status for the running of courses in Nigeria.

Olorunmaiye, who is the vice chancellor of the Crown University, Eye Nkorin, Kwara State, revealed that the team consists of members of the Board of Engineers, BEM , Malaysia and Pakistan Engineering Council.

ABUAD’S Vice Chancellor, Prof. Michael Ajisafe, described the university’s engineering faculty as a template for others in Nigeria, saying the equipment and quality of lecturers would pass any scrutiny, no matter how strict.

“Our Engineering faculty has 38 labs, even when NUC came, it confessed that 40 percent of the equipment in ABUAD don’t exist in other universities in this country. Our engineering faculty has Industrial Park with 121 major firms, which we are planning to expand to 220 units,” he stated.