Professor Ahmed T. Abdullahi, Chairman of a panel of accreditors from the National Universities Commission (NUC) on accreditation assignment to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Covenant University, gave thumps up to graduates of the department over the years.
Professor Abdullahi made the comment when delivering a summary of the exit report of the 2-day mission to members of the University Management. According to him, the employers’ ratings of the graduates of the programme are very good and highly encouraging.
He said the team was impressed with the curriculum of the programme, and heaped plaudits on the department's leadership for strict adherence to admission requirements and evolving a robust academic regulation that is clearly understood by all students.
The team applauded the department’s standard of testing, examining, grading, and assessing students as well-designed and consistent with academic regulations. "From our interaction with your students, we are proud to say they demonstrated hard and soft skills, especially in the area of computer-aided design, and we saw copies of design assignments," Professor Abdullahi stated.
Professor Abdullahi noted that the department has consistently appointed qualified external examiners and has a quality assurance and academic standards system for driving and maintaining quality academic delivery at every point in time.
He commended the leadership of the University for ensuring that the department is operating in line with the staff-to-student ratio stipulated in the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standard, with a good balance of staff mix.
Professor Abdullahi extolled the quality of research collaboration ongoing in the department, noting that there are four current research partnerships with notable organizations; this, he said, is why graduates of the programme are doing well in their professional callings and attracting good employer ratings for the university.
In his response, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abiodun H. Adebayo, thanked Professor Abdullahi and his team for undertaking the task of peer reviewing Covenant’s academic processes.
He assured the team that the University Management will work on the suggestions and recommendations made by the team to reposition and strengthen areas of commendation made concerning the programme. "The observations and comments raised are well noted, and we will work at addressing them adequately," he added.