WHY WE DECLARED WAR ON ADMISSION SYNDICATES, UNICAL VC

The Vice-Chancellor of University of Calabar, Professor Bassey Asuquo, has stated that his administration decided to declare war on admission syndicates to restore the dignity of the institution as well as curb certificate forgery.

Professor Asuquo dropped this hint while briefing newsmen on his stewardship in the last five years in his office in Calabar.

He disclosed that activities of syndicates had contributed to falling standard of education in tertiary institutions, saying that UNICAL had to introduce some measures to contain the fraudsters.

Said he: 'We have been battling syndicates with regard to admissions and issuance of fake certificates and that is why we banned the issuance of statement of results, which the syndicates were using as an avenue to reproduce all forms of results to unserious students, undiscerning public and their agents.

'Some of the measures we have adopted include working closely with all examination bodies such as JAMB and WAEC as well as NECO to check excess fraud in the system while at the same time we have introduced some securities in the screening of students.'

The Vice-Chancellor maintained that the essence of all these measures was not only to reduce the racketeering of the university's certificates but also to bring sanity and academic excellence, adding that over the years, stakeholders in the education sector had decried the falling standard of Nigerian certificates.

He, however, said with the introduction of on-line registration, buying of admission forms, quick processing of transcripts, instilling discipline among academic and non-academic staffers and early publication of results, the academic standard in the institution was now quite high as compared to when he assumed office five years ago.

This development, he revealed, had increased the number of candidates that applied for admissions into UNICAL to about 30, 000, stressing that with the on-going academic revolution the institution would rank among the best in the country.