Graduates of the 2024 pioneer set of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Calabar, have lamented their inability to obtain their certificates more than a year after completing their studies, alleging that the delay has also stalled their mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps.
The affected graduates, who signed out in September 2024 and were convoked in March 2025, said they have yet to receive either their certificates or statements of results, a development they described as frustrating and career-threatening.
Recall that in 2023, the UNICAL Faculty of Engineering was embroiled in a crisis of non-accreditation, but the then Vice Chancellor, Prof Florence Obi, countered the claim by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.
The UNICAL VC had then said that its engineering courses are just in their third year, getting ready for the National Universities Commission’s accreditation by November 2023.
At the graduation ceremony for the pioneering engineering students in March 2025, the VC had declared that the faculty of engineering had received accreditation from the National Universities Commission in 2024 and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria in 2025.
In Save Our Soul messages to The PUNCH, the students said they had been repeatedly assured by university management that the necessary documents had been forwarded to the Student Affairs Division to facilitate mobilisation and certificate collection.
According to them, the process of collecting certificates is traditionally tied to NYSC mobilisation.
“Certificate and mobilisation go hand in hand. You receive your certificate a few weeks before attending the NYSC camp. So you need to be mobilised to get your certificate,” one of the graduates said.
“We are the 2023/2024 graduate set. We finished in September 2024 and had our convocation in March 2025. Since then, we have not received our certificates.
“In May 2025, we were asked to fill out mobilisation forms and were told we had been internally mobilised. But by November 2025, our names were not uploaded to the NYSC Senate list. We later heard the issue had been rectified and that we would join the next batch. That was the same thing we were told earlier.
“If the issue has truly been resolved, why are we unable to get our certificates? Some of our colleagues in Accounting and Economics, who graduated the same year, are already in the NYSC camp.”
But, the university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Effiong Eyo, said the graduates had been mobilised and were awaiting call-up letters from the NYSC.
On certificates, Eyo said the graduates will have their certificates signed as soon as they get the NYSC call-up.
“The students have been mobilised and are awaiting call-up, which is expected in the next batch. Their certificates will be signed once NYSC calls them,” he said.
Eyo, however, said that any graduate requiring a certificate urgently could apply through the published procedure.
“The procedure is well published and known to them. In fact, many of them have applied and collected their certificates,” he stated.
Asked if the present lamentation of the students may be linked to the earlier issue of non-accreditation of engineering courses, Eyo said the issue was then fully resolved.
Another graduate from the Department of Petroleum Engineering claimed that all five departments under the faculty were affected by difficulty getting their certificates and non-mobilisation for the NYSC.
She narrated that she began her academic journey through pre-degree studies in 2016 and gained admission into Year One in 2017.
According to her, the faculty’s accreditation crisis compounded their ordeal.
“In 2021, when we were to begin Year Three, we were told the faculty had not been accredited, and we had to return to Year Two and pay school fees again. Many students withdrew or transferred to other departments,” she said.
She added that the Vice-Chancellor at the time, Prof Florence Obi, assured them that accreditation would be secured and that they were required to pay half of the Year Two fees upon resumption.
“By 2023, we were informed that the faculty had been accredited. In 2024, we were asked to undergo JAMB regularisation for NYSC purposes. We wrote our final papers in October 2024, had our convocation in March 2025 and were inducted as graduate members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers in April 2025.
“In May 2025, we were asked to pay N5,000 each for NYSC mobilisation, which we did. Since then, we have neither been mobilised nor issued our certificates — not even a statement of results.”
The graduates recalled that in 2020, while in 400 level, they were informed that the engineering programmes had not been accredited by the National Universities Commission, forcing some students to return to 200 level or switch departments.
Recall that, in an internal publication, in the first quarter of 2025, the school management had listed the successful programmes set for NYSC mobilisation as Architecture, Agricultural Engineering, Fine and Applied Art, Peace and Conflict Studies, Pharmacology, Survey and Geo-informatics, Urban and Regional Planning, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Educational Psychology, Mass Communication, Music, Physiotherapy, Estate Management.
