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The attention of the management of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo City, Ondo State, has been drawn to a publication in a national newspaper stating that only 37 of 44 medical schools have received full Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) accreditation. The list of 37 schools did not include UNIMED. We deem it fit to clarify the situation as the publication demonstrated poor understanding of accreditation processes, particularly of medical programmes, and capable of giving the wrong impression that UNIMED is running an unaccredited programme, thereby generating concerns among students, parents, and other stakeholders of our university, and the general public. As a rule, university programmes are not accredited at the time of initiation. Rather, the first step is resource verification by the National Universities Commission, after which the institution is approved to start the programme based on the result of the assessment conducted. Accreditation takes place at a later stage before the school graduates its first set, usually in year 3 or 4 of a programme. For Medicine specifically, both the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Medical and Dental Council (MDCN) are required to independently accredit a new programme.
Due to the intricacies of medical training, the MCN accreditation is sequential, stage-by-stage, and not a one-off process. Once an institution is authorized to start the programme, as is true of UNIMED, MDCN undertakes accreditation process over a number of years, with visiting of teams of experts at set intervals. Among others, MDCN undertakes assessment of facilities, human resources and other requirements as well as actively monitors the professional examinations that the students take at defined landmarks in a new training programme. These include the point of moving from the pre-clinical phase to the clinical phase and second professional examination, followed by the stage involving in the pathological sciences (year 4 of medical studies), and then the stage involving Paediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology (year 5 of medical studies), before the final accreditation that will be conducted and thereafter, the students take their final examination and graduate. Once this stage is completed, and if the institution succeeds, then accreditation is a five-year affair.
UNIMED has successfully scaled through all due accreditations stages of MDCN required for year 1 to year 5 of the medical training programme, in tandem with the stage of progression of our first set of students. In addition, our training programme is fully accredited by NUC. The University is currently preparing for the last of the sequential accreditations, which is the final accreditation, with our students now in their final year. Thus, on the whole, UNIMED is fully on course in terms of the accreditation processes for Medicine, with the full assurance that we will successfully scale the final accreditation that will be conducted within the next few months, and graduate our first set of doctors this year (2022), just as we successfully completed our first set of nurses and physiotherapists in 2021.
At UNIMED, we are proud of our record as Nigeria’s first specialised medical and health sciences University and committed to ensuring innovative and excellent health professions education. With the committed funding support of the Ondo State government, the determined efforts of our staff and students, and the goodwill of other stakeholders, including parents, UNIMED’s has recorded outstanding achievement in the seven years of its existence. Among others, UNIMED has a total of 26 programmes – the largest collection of health and medical courses in any Nigerian university. In 2021, NUC ranked UNIMED as the 3rd best specialized university, 4th best state-owned university and 19th overall best university in Nigeria.
Finally, we hereby assure all our stakeholders and the general public of the commitment of the university authority to continue to strive towards excellence in line with its vision and mission. Our focus is not simply to succeed in accreditation processes but to be an institution grounded in international best practices, and a hub of excellence in medical education and research that contribute to improved health and well-being nationally and globally.
Temitope Oluwatayo
Public Relations Unit,
UNIMED, Ondo.