On multiple occasions, students of the Lagos State College of Health Technology (LASCOHT) were led to believe that their study programmes would be fully accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) before they completed their courses. Yet, years after the first students were admitted into several departments—including Public Health, Morbid Science, Complementary Science, and Biomedical Engineering Technology, none of these courses have obtained accreditation.
The consequences are severe: graduates find themselves unable to pursue Higher National Diploma (HND) options elsewhere, their diplomas unrecognised, and their years of financial and personal investment seemingly rendered futile.
Reason students who have suffered this pain are calling on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to intervene over the non-accreditation of some courses in the institution.
A number of students who spoke with The Guardian lamented that as a result of the non-accreditation of their courses, they have been left stranded, not able to further their education as no other institutions is willing to accept the diploma certificate for HND while those who do not want to be stagnated start afresh in a new school.
They claimed that the impression they were given was that before the completion of their courses the programmes would be accredited by the NBTE but some of the courses five years after the school commenced admitting students, no accreditation. It was gathered that some of the courses with no accreditation include Public Health, Morbid Science, Complementary Science and Biomedical Engineering Technology (BMET).
A former student, who pleaded anonymity, said: “ My set is the first of Biomedical in that school and some of us are still waiting for accreditation so as to continue with the HND.”
She said the impression some got about the programme was that it was accredited especially as it was ran in similar fashion like accredited courses. “We only got to find out when we completed our internship. When we got to know, the school kept promising and promising. They will say, ‘you’ll start this year’. ‘This year’ is never ending. They have this I don’t care attitude to it, if I may say.”
Another student stated that participating in the programme was not just wasted money, but also wasted time and years. He said he had to start another National Diploma programme in another school in Lagos just to move on as the certificate issued by school cannot be accepted for HND elsewhere because the courses are not accredited as at the time they completed the programme so the students got professional diploma certificate.
He wondered that five years after the institution commenced a programme like Biomedical Engineering Technology as the first batch of students were admitted in 2020, the course has not been accredited yet students are yearly being admitted. “They are just after making money. When I complained to one of the lecturers about it then he was like “go and look for work with the certificate first.”
When contacted, the Vice President, LASCOHT Student Union, Halimat, who confirmed it, said a number of students had complained to the executive and efforts are on to discuss the way forward with the college provot.
When the institution Public Relations Officer was contacted, she said though she has some information but needed to get permission from the provost to comment and that would be on Monday as she was not within the institution’ premises.
