The National Universities Commission (NUC) has granted formal approval to the Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA), for the commencement of the Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) programme with effect from the 2020/2021 academic session.
This was disclosed in a statement by Mr Adebanyo Adegbenro, the Deputy Director, Corporate Communications of the institution, on Thursday, in Akure.
Adegbenro noted that the approval, according to the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Adamu Rasheed, followed the recommendations of the panel of experts from the commission, which carried out a resource verification visit.
“In the letter addressed to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Fuwape and signed by the Director of Academic Planning, Dr N. B. Salihu, ‘resource verification was carried out by a panel of experts to the proposed medical programme of FUTA with a view to assessing the human and material resources available for their establishment.
“I am directed to inform the Vice-Chancellor that the Executive Secretary has considered and approved the establishment of the full-time mode of the Medicine and Surgery, MBBS, programme to be run with effect from the 2020/2021 academic session.
“The resource verification team visited FUTA in February 2021, to ascertain its level of preparedness for the take-off the School of Medical Sciences,” Adegbenro said.
According to Adegbenro, after a painstaking assessment, the leader of the team, Prof. Saliu Yakasai, Provost, College of Medicine, Bayero University Kano, said he was encouraged by FUTA’s determination towards the take-off of the school in record time.
He said FUTA was leading the pace, among other universities of technology in Nigeria, and that there was no doubt that the establishment of the medical programme and medical school will further place the institution among the foremost, amongst its peers, in the country.
Prof. Yakasai urged the university management not to relent in putting up the necessary logistics for the efficient take-off of the school and was optimistic that FUTA will use the medical school to further advance research and learning in Nigeria.
Reacting to the development, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, said the report of the resource verification team and the subsequent approval by the NUC is an endorsement of the hard work and structures, both human and material, already put in place for the commencement of the programme, he said.
The director quoted the VC as saying all hands must be on deck to ensure the smooth and efficient take-off of the medical programme.
“Fuwape said since the school of Health and Health Technology is already running, Anatomy, Physiology and Medical Biochemistry, it will also join the mix of basic medical sciences programmes. FUTA has what it takes to run the MBBS programme.
“He said the university will deploy adequate human and material resources and invest the program with the imprimatur of excellence, which has become the hallmark of all programmes run by FUTA,” Adegbenro said.