PRE-DEGREE/CERTIFICATE REGISTRATION/SCHOOL FEES

V-C Charges HoDs, Time-Table Officers On Examination Schedules

As part of efforts aimed at streamlining undergraduate programmes and making them more acceptable to students, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ndowa Lale, convened an emergency meeting of Heads of Department, Faculty and Departmental Time-Table Officers at the Senate Chambers on Friday, May 26, 2017 to discuss matters arising from the First Semester Examinations. 
Addressing the participants, the Vice-Chancellor appealed to them to always seek the right information that would enable them arrive at the right decisions, rather than sit back in their offices and complain that they were not informed on extant policies. 
 He charged the Departmental Heads and other schedule officers to always plan their time and examination schedules if they hoped to be part of the new direction of the University under his watch. “If you get to know that there is an official document in circulation, be proactive by going out to get it for your Department, rather than waiting for some other persons to bring it to you before you act on it. Heads of Department must give quality leadership and not just sit in their offices and complain,” he admonished them.
 The Vice-Chancellor also frowned at a situation in which foundational courses were allocated to younger academics, stressing the need for Heads of Department to allocate courses based solely on specialisation, competence and seniority.
 He appealed to Senior Lecturers to handle all foundational courses in their Departments and not abandon them to younger colleagues, warning that any Department that violates the regulation would henceforth, be sanctioned in line with Senate directive on the issue. He also directed that when the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Unit sought information that would facilitate its functions, Departments that failed to make such working information available would be sanctioned as deterrence to others.
On the issue of script marking, Professor Lale warned lecturers not to mark the scripts of students owing charges, advising them to submit such scripts to the Examinations and Records Unit of the Registry Department. “We gave a concession to students in the last session so that they can graduate, but for the 2016/2017 academic session, the scripts of students in that category should be deposited at the Examinations and Records Unit. HoDs who don't have the list of students that paid their approved charges and did not register, as well as the list of those who did not pay at all, should obtain such lists from their Deans. If you have already graded the papers in that category in error, don't release the results; just sort them out and send to the Examinations and Records Unit,” he advised them.
According to Professor Lale, from now on, whenever Time-Table Officers meet, they should always come up with a communiqué and stick to the rules and regulations as contained in the Statement of Academic Policy. “Abide by the rules and regulations of the University. It is a shame for any lecturer to assault students or their colleagues in whatever circumstances. You can still achieve what you want without being rude to others. In cases of suspected examination malpractices, the rule allows the lecturer to obtain the incriminating evidence and not to brutalise students suspected of cheating,” he warned.
In a presentation entitled: Summary of Observation and Related Matters, Director of Quality Assurance and Quality Control and SERVICOM Unit, Professor Ikechukwu Agbagwa, revealed widespread infringement of the rules governing examinations in the University. “When electricity supply became so epileptic on Campus, Management stopped the writing of examinations beyond 5.00pm. So, the examination periods were stipulated between 9.00am and 12.00 noon and 2.00pm to 5.00pm. 
“The unfortunate trend observed recently is the scheduling of examinations by Departments outside or in-between these periods. These lapses included commencing examinations at 7.00am, which is one hour before the official time for resumption of work in the University, overlapping examination periods such as 7.00am to 10.00am, 8.00am to 11.00am, 9.00am to 12.00 noon, 11.00am to 1.00pm, and 12.00 noon to 2.00pm,” he observed. 
The Director also condemned late commencement of examinations, administering of examinations outside the approved time-table, allocation of foundation courses to junior lecturers, increasing cases of 'outsourcing” courses to colleagues and none university personnel that did not teach such courses as required by law. 
Professor Agbagwa further disclosed that during the monitoring exercise, the QAQC observed overlapping of examination periods and cases where students and invigilators were made to wait for on-going examinations to end before commencing new ones at the same venues, some of which were disputed amongst student representatives. He appealed to Management to discourage such unwholesome practices through appropriate sanctions against staff that were deemed to have infringed upon the terms of their employment.
 The Director joined the Vice-Chancellor to appeal that each Department should appoint functional Time-Table Officers for effective coordination of examinations in future. He also called for regular meetings between Time-Table Officers and other stakeholders to achieve seamless scheduling of examinations.

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