The University of Calabar (Unical) Alumni has appealed to the Federal Government to grant the institution a waiver to recruit personnel to fill various vacant positions.
President of the alumni association, Paul Ishiemomoh, made the appeal in an interview on Monday.
The call follows the ongoing crisis involving over 300 dentistry students at the university, whose admissions are reportedly at risk of termination.
StarReporters reports that the dentistry department was recently mired in controversy over allegations that the university admitted more students than the number officially accredited by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
Some of the affected students, now in their fourth and fifth years, received letters summoning them for a meeting concerning what school authorities described as “non-regular” admissions.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Florence Obi explained that the issue predated her administration and assured efforts were being made to resolve the crisis. She added that the MDCN’s refusal to induct the 2016 dentistry students contributed to the current situation.
The alumni president warned that other departments may also face similar accreditation challenges if the underlying issues are not urgently addressed.
He pointed out that, in addition to infrastructural concerns, the institution was grappling with a shortage of manpower.
He called on the Ministry of Education to promptly release funds designated for upgrading selected university medical schools across the country.
He also stated that the university was not solely to blame for the over-admission of students.
“Parents of the students as well as the university’s senate share part of the blame.”
“Some of them are screaming now that they have spent so much; we did this to get admission for our children. That does not exonerate them.”
“You know that your child is not qualified to get admission to study medicine for reasons that your child scored 190 and the cut-off point for medical school is 320, yet you force your child and the school to admit him or her by way of inducement or other form of pressure.”
“As you are putting pressure, other parents are putting pressure, and at the end of the day, the school is forced to admit more than the required quota,” he said.
The alumni president further criticised the university senate, which is responsible for academic policies, admission quotas, and cut-off marks, for its inaction.
“What were they doing when all these things were going on? Every person is now standing aloof and pretending as if the problem or the blame is only from the dean or the faculty officers or admission officer, or even the VC.”
“If we don’t blame everyone that should be blamed over this issue, it will re-occur.”
“You can’t go to a senate meeting and they bring the decision for admission, and you look at it and see that it is more than what is required and you keep quiet and now come back to shift blame.”
“So the university needs to purge itself, starting from the senate. Our parents need to be told that they should allow their children to study courses they are qualified for and not buy admission for their children,” Ishiemomoh stressed.
(NAN)