UNILORIN: Ambali tasks affiliated institutions on excellence

Institutions affiliated to the University of Ilorin have been tasked to ensure best of global practices for which the University is known.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali (OON), gave this charge last Tuesday (April 28, 2015) during an interactive workshop organised for the affiliates of the University by the Centre for Affiliated Institutions, University of Ilorin.

Prof. Ambali, who was represented at the workshop by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. (Mrs.) N. Y. S. Ijaiya, stressed that the purpose of the workshop was not to demonstrate superiority but that it was an internal mechanism to promote quality.

The Vice-Chancellor said that such workshop was crucial to ensure that students get the best of education, explaining that it was also important to ensure accountability and make teaching and learning effective.

Prof. Ambali said, “Education is key in this ICT age. What we offer today may not be sufficient for the future. We must, therefore, look at the future.”

The Vice-Chancellor, who noted that affiliation helps to ensure quality staffing and correct assessment of facilities, pointed out that the relationship would help the affiliated institutions to have proper evaluation.

Describing the relationship as symbiotic, Prof. Ambali charged the affiliated institutions to maintain the culture of academic excellence, which the University of Ilorin is known for.

In his opening speech, the Director, Centre for Affiliated Institutions, Prof. A. O. Omotosho, said that the workshop was very important as it would afford the two sides to have a round-table discussion in order to foster good working relationship aimed at realising the very objective for which affiliation was sought in the first place.

Prof. Omotosho stated that the Centre was established to share the University's experience with the institutions in order to improve their standards so that their products could meet the ever increasing demand of admission and the labour market.

The Director said, “We owe you the obligation to help you moderate and monitor your examinations in order to ensure that students are properly assessed and merit whatever verdict we pass on them in terms of grade of their result”.

Prof. Omotosho submitted that having somebody to supervise one's work is necessary for any organisation that desires to have quality products, maintaining that such supervision in modern time is called quality control arrangement.

Affiliated institutions represented at the workshop included,: Arabic and Islamic Training Centre, MARKAZ, Agege; ECWA Theological Seminary, Igbaja; Imam Malik College, Ibadan; Al-Ummah College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Ikirun; the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta; and UMCA Theological College, Ilorin.