Challenges and Solutions for Enhancing EKSU Academic Programmes

1. EKITI STATE UNIVERSITY, ADO-EKITIDIRECTORATE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMMES (DCEP) POSITION ON ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES: CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD TO PROPEL EKSU TO WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY BEING A PAPER PRESENTED BY PROF. G. O. OYINLOYE Director, DCEP

2. Introduction • The major purpose of establishing a university is to disseminate information in terms of: • Teaching • Research • Community service • In order to boost the community service beyond the hosting State to the entire nation, DCEP was established in 2012.

3. DCEP oversees: • The Sandwich Unit (on EKSU Campus) • The Affiliate Unit, which comprises of: • AdeniranOgunsanya College of Education, Lagos • Emmanuel AlayandeCollege of Education, Oyo • Michael OtedolaCollege of Primary Education, Lagos • Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin • Kwara State College of Education, Oro • Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun

4. Viability The Programme has been a very viable one, as: Many students are willing to enrol in the Programme. • Undergraduate programmes—19,289 students • Postgraduate programmes—50 students at Master’s level The National Universities Commission (NUC) specified admission quota for the programme, thus limiting the number of students. Private institutions are willing to partner with EKSU to run degree programmes, but NUC policy does not allow such partnership. • (Meanwhile, we are still impressing on NUC to allow affiliation with institutions that have Government approval to run NCE programmes.

5. Accommodation • The Sandwich programme that is based in EKSU has befitting accommodation for both administration and lecture rooms at Irasa. • For the Affiliate Colleges, the Unit carries out resource verification exercises which involve: • Inspection of accommodation • Establishment of qualified lecturers • Laboratories • and other facilities required for the smooth running of the programmes

6. Inspectors (Professors from Departments in Faculty of Education) Report of exercise Recommendations for Final Approval Informed and be invited Faculty Board of Education Senate Signing of Memorandum of Understanding National Universities Commission (NUC) (Resource Verification) Establishes the suitability of the Accommodation and other resources in the Colleges of Education Resource Verification

7. Classrooms • Classrooms are integral part of accommodation. The existence of good classroom is always established during the resource verification. • DCEP Sandwich has good classrooms; thus the problem of classroom is minimised. • At the Affiliate Colleges, there are good classrooms and laboratories.

8. Accreditation • Sandwich Programme: • The courses run by the Sandwich Programme at EKSU were all accredited for Faculty of Education by the NUC. • For the Affiliate Colleges: • Faculty of Education prepares the Affiliate Colleges for accreditation through MOCK accreditation exercise; • When Faculty’s Board of Education is satisfied, the University Accreditation Team visits the Colleges to certify; • NUC Team is invited • The last Accreditation exercise conducted by NUC in 2014 in three (3) of the Affiliate Colleges, the reports are as follow:

9. A. AdeniranOgunsanya College of Education Ijanikin Lagos presented sixteen (16) programmes and had full accreditation in all the programmes

10. B. Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo presented Eighteen (18) programmes and had full accreditation in Twelve (12) programme and interim in six (6) programmes. The details are as listed below:

11. C. Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Epe, Lagos presented Seventeen (17) programmes and had one (1) full accreditation, Thirteen (13) interim and three (3) Denied The courses are as listed as follows:

12. C. Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Epe, (Cont’d)

13. Induction • Induction Programmes are held at the commencement of each academic session/contact for all the lecturers in the Affiliate Colleges. • This exercise involves presentation of papers by Professors in the Faculty of Education and the cognate Faculties on all our activities ranging from • Admission, Screening, Lectures, examinations, practicals to Teaching Practice. • The induction gives the Lecturers the opportunity to interact with EKSU team and learn to do things in EKSU ways.

14. Examinations and Result Processing In order to establish quality assurance in examinations conducted by DCEP, the following processes are followed. Moderation of Questions and Marking Scheme Conduct of Examinations: monitoring of examinations and moderation of Teaching Practice Moderation of Marked Scripts Vetting of Collated Results DCEP Academic Board of Examiners: This Board is a creation of the Senate. They are mainly Professors, Director Academic Affairs , DCEP secretaries, Directors, All Assistant Directors in the Directorate and supporting staff. vi. Business Committee of Senate vii. Senate: The senate receives the report of the Business Committee, considers it and approves as appropriate.

15. Challenges • The major challenges could be summarized as follows: • Inability to secure full accreditation in one of the Affiliate Colleges specifically Michael Otedola College of Primary Education. The major problem is staff ratio in terms of lecturers with PhD. • Inability of few of the Colleges to bring their results up to date as a result of industrial actions by their members of staff. • Issue of distance raised by the National Universities Commission NUC that affiliation will not be granted between a University and College of Education where the distance exceeds two hundred kilometers (200Kilo) • Industrial action by members of staff EKSU at times distrupted our activities even when the colleges were ready to present their results or invited us to monitor their activities. • The battle on the restriction placed on distance is almost won following the approval of continuation of our affiliation with AdeniranOgunsanya College of Education Lagos in December 2015 by NUC. • DCEP is studying and compiling further activities that will improve delivery of lectures and computation of results in order to meet up with Universities best practices especially those that had attained World Class Status. • EKSU will get there.

16. THANK YOU! AND GOD BLESS