The Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar (Unical), Prof Florence Obi says her administration will always embrace accreditation exercises with open arms, saying it is a welcome development in the institution.

Prof Florence Obi stated this at the Senate Chamber of the institution when the National Universities Commission (NUC) Accreditation teams paid a working visit on her.

According to her, the institution does not dread accreditation exercise but welcomes it, stressing that, the exercise is necessary to help the institution further improve on its standards.

The University helmsman said she will not compromise on standards, even as she described members of the accreditation team as ‘credible people’ who will do the right things, in line with approved NUC standard.

Her words, ‘’ As a university, we do not dread accreditation. It is a welcome development in our university. If we do not have periodic accreditations, some Universities will go to sleep.

‘’ Accreditation is very necessary because it is a tool for ensuring academic excellence and raising the standard of education in Universities’’

This came as she expressed optimism that the institution will scale through the accreditation exercise successfully having put human and material resources in place.

Earlier, leader of the NUC accreditation team, Prof. Chiedo Mafiana thanked the Vice chancellor for the warm reception and show of hospitality.

He said the accreditation teams were in Unical to carry out a ‘peer-review’ of programmes of the University to ascertain whether it meets the NUC standards.

The team leader said they have not come to victimize Unical and promised to be fair in their assessment of the various programmes that are due for accreditation.

‘’ Over the years, institutions dread accreditation exercises. We have not come to victimize anybody but to find out whether the human and material resources in the various departments meet the minimum NUC requirements.

‘’ We will be fair to you as a system. All we need is your maximum cooperation to enable us carry out our assignment’’, he added.

The Programmes listed for accreditation are Business Education, Science Education, Special Education, History and International Studies, Public Health, Social Studies Education, Economics and Social Science Education, Educational Religious Studies, Microbiology, Zoology and Environmental Biology and Food Science and Technology and a host of others.