The National Universities Commission (NUC) has described the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), as the fastest growing young university in Nigeria.
The NUC team, led by Prof. Saint Gbilekaa, said this on Thursday while on an accreditation visit to three of the departments of the university in Oye-Ekiti.
Gbilekaa, an erudite scholar in Theatre Arts added that there had been an impressive improvement in infrastructure development in the university.
The NUC accreditation team were at FUOYE to assess three of the academic programmes being offered its students. They are: Theatre and Media Arts, Sociology and Demography and Social Statistics.
Prof. Gbilekaa led the team to assess FUOYE Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Profs. Uche Isiugo-Abanihe and Gyong Emmanuel led the team to assess the Departments of Demography, Social Statistics and Sociology respectively.
Also, a renowned Professor of English from the University of Ibadan (UI), Prof. Remi Oriaku, led the team to assess FUOYE’s Department of English and Literary Studies.
All the team members while speaking after their assessments lauded the institution for its giant strides in its infrastructural development.
“Having visited the campuses before and seen little beginning from infrastructure development you had then, we are impressed with the improvement in FUOYE today.
“And going by the words of the Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs of the university, Mr Yinka Ademuyiwa, this may be the fastest growing young university in Nigeria.
“I want to also assure you that we will be fair in what we have come to do,”he said.
Similarly, Prof. Oriaku said that the team had come for the assessment with an open mind.
“We have come with an open mind to assess what is on ground and the adequacy of the existing facilities in FUOYE to the programmes in English and Literary Studies.
“We have seen your impressive structures and we want to see those other things that will complement the structures,” he said.
Reacting on behalf of the Management, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE, Prof. Olusola Omotola, implored the accreditation team to first consider that FUOYE is a young university.
Omoyola, who represented the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, also reminded the team that young university had since its inception been equally affected by paucity of funds being made available to federal universities.
He added that despite the challenges of funding, the institution had done its best to fulfill its mandate by providing conducive teaching and learning environment and adequate facilities for its students.
“We express the willingness of our university to cooperate with you to accomplish all your tasks.
“No system is perfect and given the challenges of funding facing all federal educational institutions in the country, we are bound to have our little shortcomings.
“But we have given our best in delivering on our mandate, we will continue to live up to the expectations. I am sure when you go round, you will not be disappointed.
“There may be challenges here and there, we will welcome all your comments on how we can improve on them and how to tackle those challenges,” he said.