The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

JANYNE Hodder, president of the University of The Bahamas, said the institution could achieve National Accreditation and Equivalency Council of The Bahamas (NAECOB) accreditation by the summer of 2025, but obtaining international accreditation will take longer.

During the soft opening of UB’s North campus in Grand Bahama on Friday, Ms Hodder told reporters that they are proud of the progress and work they have done so far.

“We have an application to NAECOB and I think that process will go reasonably quickly between now and the end of June,” she said.

UB has also sent an application to the America’s Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

Ms Hodder said the multi-step process with SACS will be a longer, with UB currently in the candidacy phase.   

“There are people at the accreditation agency reading our submission,” she said. “They will probably come back and ask for questions or clarification or more data, and we will provide that to them.”

Once the initial review is complete, SACS will decide if UB is ready for an in-person evaluation.

“We expect a visiting team to come to see whether everything we said on the paper is true in reality. Once that visitation occurs, they will make a recommendation to the board to accept us as a candidate,” she said.

The next phase will involve preparing additional documentation for compliance.

“We will be working on that in a few months, and when that is in, we will have a second visit. Then, we will be ready to complete the process for full accreditation,” Ms Hodder said.

The UB president stressed that while accreditation is the goal, it requires an ongoing responsibility.

“Don’t think of this as a marathon we are running with an end date. Once you’ve done that, you have to prepare for your reaffirmation,” she said.

“So, we are not just engaged in let’s get to the finish line. We are engaged in a process that is going to be a cycle.”

Enrolment at The University of The Bahamas (UB) has reached its largest in five years, with just over 4,500 students.

“I think we still have the capacity to grow, but our programmes need to be targeted toward meeting our national development needs and addressing national concerns,” UB’s president said.

She noted that UB’s Small Island Sustainability programme is underway at the Oakes Field and Freeport campuses, and added that plans are also underway to revitalise UB’s research field station — the former campus.

She also noted that UB has completed all its audits up to 2023.