The Management of the University of Cross River, UNICROSS, has said that the challenges and delays surrounding the institution’s students’ results portal, was as a result of complex data migration process and a systemic “fight back” from those profiting from old irregularities.
Speaking during a press conference at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press Centre in Calabar, the Director of Exams and Results, Dr. Anderson Etika, provided a detailed breakdown of the transition from the university’s old portal to its current digital infrastructure.
According to him, the administration of the current Vice Chancellor, Professor Francisca Bassey inherited a school in the midst of a difficult transition.
He explained that the primary hurdle was a “handshake” failure between the legacy system and the new portal.
The Director noted that the university initially considered returning to “the basics, by manually retrieving hard copies of results dating back to the school’s inception in 2002.
Doctor Etika said the university had successfully recovered some data out of over five million data points from the old cloud storage, maintaining that while discrepancies were bound to occur moving between different programming languages and synthetics, the new system would offer unprecedented transparency.
Dr. Etika emphasized that the new portal provides “real-time” access, allowing students to view grades in seconds after a lecturer has uploaded them.
Addressing the recent protests and complaints regarding delays, the Director attributed the friction to what he called a “system fighting back.”
He alleged that some lecturers and students who previously benefited from a porous system were inciting unrest because they could no longer manipulate results.
He further noted that internal checks revealed that some students at the forefront of the protests have a lot of carryovers.
While acknowledging the genuine frustration of graduating students, Dr. Etika appealed for patience, assuring then that accuracy would be maintained.
