NgREN, Ebscohost E-Content to Facilitate NUC Accreditation of Academic Programmes
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has disclosed that universities that subscribe to the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) as well as accessed the EBSCOhost content would have access to numerous resources which would facilitate the accreditation of their academic programmes.
Former Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof Julius A. Okojie who made this disclosure recently at a presentation added that access to EBSCOhost resources would also improve the ranking of the nation’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
Prof Okojie who was also the immediate past Chairman of NgREN disclosed that the REN has secured access to all EBSCOhost e-books collections and seven research databases valued at four million US dollars. He noted that these research databases include full text e-journals, periodicals and magazines of several academic disciplines and professional specialisations.
He also revealed that EBSCO had granted this access to many Nigerian universities at no cost until December 31, 2016, with the hope that they would continue their subscription at the end of the free period. Urging all Nigerian universities to tap from the goodwill of EBSCO and also connect to the NgREN in order to benefit from its resource sharing capabilities, the former chairman said that, among the resources that would be accessed via EBSCOhost, were more than 100, 000 high-quality e-book titles, 27, 100 full-text journals, 18,430 indexed and abstracted journals, 9,041,400 searchable cited references daily updates and 630 videos with transcripts and related articles.
Professor Okojie stated that the NgREN had provided an elaborate infrastructure backbone to interconnect all research and education institutions in Nigeria and link them with other Research and Education Networks (RENs) worldwide. He added that the NgREN was established to provide a platform for universities to communicate, collaborate, access and share resources across national and international boundaries, primarily for the purpose of research and learning, but with added capabilities to offer the efficiencies of unified communications and consolidation of digital contents.
The NUC former scribe encouraged Nigerian universities to utilise these resources as plans were underway to ensure that the Institutions continued to access EBSCO as well as other e-resources beyond the expiration of the current service.
In her remarks, the Vice-President, EBSCO, Ms. Collen Mills, expressed gratitude to the NUC for its efforts in ensuring that Nigerian HEIs were able to compete favourably with their counterparts around the world. She noted that, though EBSCO had provided services to Nigerian universities for several years, her organisation was pleased to partner the NUC and NgREN to provide more services to the Institutions.
Ms. Mills specifically expressed joy that EBSCO was providing its services to Nigerian HEIs through the NgREN as it would make a huge difference in the nation’s education sector. She observed that, with the capacity building workshop that was organised in April, 2016, to sensitise universities on access and usage of e-book academic collection, Nigerian universities were now more prepared to access EBSCOhost and utilise their collection to the benefit of the nation.
Delivering a vote of thanks to the visitors from EBSCO, NUC’s Deputy Executive Secretary II, Mallam Ibrahim Dan’Iya, expressed gratitude to the team for their magnanimity and concern for the sector. He called for more partnership and cooperation from EBSCO and assured the team that Nigerian universities would benefit from the platform.