By Dayo Johnson, Akure

Vice-Chancellor, University of Medical Sciences, UNIMED, Ondo, Prof. Friday Okonofua, yesterday, assured that the institution will get  full accreditation of the National Universities Commission (NUC) by the end of October.

He spoke at the 8th Nigerian Young Academy (NYA) Conference and General Assembly hosted by UNIMED  in conjunction with the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) and the Interacademy Partnership (lap).

Okonofua said that in less than three years, UNIMED had achieved a lot in its bid to be a thriving medical and health sciences university, locally, nationally and internationally.

“It was only in April, 2015 that we got a letter from the NUC that allowed us to start this university with just five courses, and since then we have made many phenomenal milestones including the fact that we now have about 15 disciplines across six faculties”, he stated.

“In fact, our MBBS and BDS programmes have passed three major hurdles in seeking accreditation of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and by October this year, we are very hopeful to get full accreditation of National Universities Commission”.

Okonofua described as apt the theme of 8th NYA conference which is ‘MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH: A Cornerstone for sustainable Development’.

Professor David Mba, who is Pro-Chancellor and Dean, Faculty of Technology at De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom, gave the keynote speech, entitled, ‘Multidisciplinary research, a cornerstone for sustainable development’.