Hundreds of Dental Health students of the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Plateau State, on Wednesday, took to the streets to protest the non-accreditation of their programme, which has left many of them in school for over 10 years without graduating.
The aggrieved students, under the banner of the Jos University Dental Students Association (JUDSA), blocked the university’s main gate at the Permanent Site, carrying placards with inscriptions such as “Save us from unending depression,” “Our future is on hold,” “Accredit us now,” and “We are tired of UNIJOS.”
Speaking during the protest, the association’s president, Mr. Johnson Titus, said the students were frustrated by years of stagnation caused by the university’s inability to secure accreditation for the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme.
“What you see behind me is the frustration of dental students who have been in this university for the past ten years without graduating. We have been stagnating because of the non-accreditation of our programme,” Titus lamented.
He called on the university management and relevant authorities to urgently intervene by fixing a date for accreditation and resolving the curriculum and administrative issues delaying their progress.
“Nobody should blame us for protesting,” he added. “If the university is going to conduct screening and admission, they never inform prospective students that the programme lacks accreditation. Many of us have wasted years of our lives without any hope of graduating soon.”
As of the time of filing this report, the university management had yet to issue any official response to the students’ demands.
