The Secretary-General/Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Dr. F.U. Abubakar, has said the council has granted a “full accreditation” to the Bachelor of Nursing Science (BNSc) programme of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
Abubakar said the recognition and acceptance of the programme followed a holistic accreditation process undertaken on all the benchmark indices and the programme emerged sound enough to scale the set standards.
The council’s registrar was speaking on Tuesday, 12 October, 2021 when he led a powerful team of the body to the office of the NOUN Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olufemi Peters, at the university headquarters, where he also congratulated his host for his election as the university’s VC.
He said the visit was to “give a first-hand information” towards resolving as well as improving the programme, having run a comprehensive accreditation back in July, which came about after developing “a different template for NOUN.”
While reading from the report, the council’s boss said a “greater number of students, after a random check, shows that they have fulfilled all the requirements to be admitted,” stressing that, however, an avenue to authenticate their document needed to be created to avoid admitting unqualified students.
With about 11,179 students, Abubakar continued, the university needs to sign more Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) to allow the students utilise laboratory facilities, even as he urged the Vice-Chancellor to upgrade NOUN’s mega laboratory located in Ibadan.
He said as the council awaits NOUN’s Concept Note, which they will study upon receipt, and “looking at the strength of the university, the council has granted full accreditation to the programme.”
Responding, the Vice-Chancellor, who expressed his deep elation, said the feat has some personal meaning to him, saying that “I have been so much involved and I have always supported the Nursing programme all my time in the university.”
He said the few issues raised by the council would be addressed before next year, including the staffing in the department, which the university would have since put behind it if not because of certain bureaucratic matters with the IPPIS.
On the MoUs, the VC said the university was working on that, as it has recently entered into such partnerships with the 44 Army Reference hospital in Kaduna, with eight others currently in the offing.
Peters thanked the council for the accreditation. “You have demonstrated to us of your support and we quite appreciate.”
The Vice-Chancellor was flanked at the meeting by the dean of the Faculty of Health Science, Prof. Shehu Adamu, the Head of the Department as well as other top-ranking members from the faculty.
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