R-L: Dr Anderson Etika, Director of Exams and Results, Prof. Thomas Ojikpong, Deputy Vice Chancellor Admin, Prof. Stella Maris-Okey, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics, Comrade Archibong Bassey, NUJ Chairman, Cross River State Council, Barr. Uno I. Ogban, Acting Registrar, and Connell Ela.
By Ita Williams, Calabar
The management of the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) has attributed ongoing delay in the release of students’ results to technical difficulties linked to a complex data migration process inherited by the current administration.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press Centre, Calabar, the Director of Exams and Results, Dr. Anderson Etika, explained that the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Francisca Bassey, who assumed office on January 26, 2025, inherited a university already undergoing a difficult transition from an old results portal to a new digital system.
According to Dr. Etika, the major challenge was a failure in compatibility between the legacy portal and the new platform.
“We had so much data in the old portal and we needed to move that data to the new portal. That became a serious problem,” he said, citing funding constraints and the eventual shutdown of the old portal, which stalled the migration process.
He disclosed that the university initially considered manually retrieving hard-copy results dating back to 2002, but later succeeded in recovering portions of the data from the old cloud storage.
“We have successfully migrated data from the 2017 academic session to the 2023 session to the new portal,” Etika revealed, noting that over five million data points were handled within a two-month period.
While technical inconsistencies are common when migrating data between different programming frameworks, the Director noted that the redesigned portal significantly improves accountability by providing instant visibility of results and restricting unauthorized grade modifications.
Dr. Etika further alleged that resistance to the new system stems from individuals who previously exploited loopholes in the old portal. “Some dirty lecturers can no longer do what they used to do, so they are fighting the system,” he claimed, adding that some students leading recent protests were found to have multiple carryovers.
He appealed for patience, especially from graduating students, stressing that accuracy must take precedence over speed. “This is the result we are talking about, and it is susceptible. We risk confirming wrong degrees if we rush. We are a work in progress, and within a short time, this challenge will be behind us,” he said.
Other members of the management team present included the Deputy Vice-Chancellors for Administration and Academics, Prof. Thomas Ojikpong, Prof. Stella Maris-Okey, as well as the Acting Registrar, Barr. Uno I. Ogban, Connell Ela.
