31.5% of OAU law lecturers don’t have doctorate degree –NUC

Opeyemi Adelere

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The National Universities Commission has said that 31.5 per cent of the academic staff of the Faculty of Law in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, do not possess a doctorate degree.

This was contained in a recent report by an accreditation team sent to the university in 2019 by the commission. NUC has, however, restored accreditation of some programmes it stopped at the university two years ago.

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The university, according to its Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, has got full accreditation of all the academic programmes in the Faculties of Law, Dentistry, Basic Medical Sciences and Social Sciences.

The faculty of law and these other departments had lost their accreditation in 2018.  The school consequently asked admission seekers applying for Law, Botany, Dentistry, Fine Arts and Medical Rehabilitation programmes to change their courses or choose other institutions.

However, the NUC has now accredited some of the programmes but made some observations and demanded an improvement from the school.

In its observation on the Faculty of Law, the report read: “31.5% of academic staff do not have the PhD degree.” The NUC advised the university to ensure that all the academic staff obtain the doctorate degree.

The accreditation team had also reported that academic staff offices were not well-furnished while law material texts such as statute books, law books, laws of the Federation of Nigeria, law reports and journals were not available in the judge chambers.

Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, has  commended  the NUC, the institution’s Governing Council, led by Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, the Senate, all the departments, faculties and alumni associations for all efforts put in place, which eventually culminated in the accreditation of courses including the ones with initial outright denial or partial accreditation.

He said, “With the latest accreditation of 42 undergraduate programmes, all the 107 programmes in the university are now accredited.”

The VC said his administration would do everything necessary to sustain the high moral, academic and cultural standards which the university was known for. He also called on stakeholders in the sector to be supportive to the institution in getting more structures and infrastructures on ground.