PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
By Tunde Uchegbuo
From a little beginning as Advanced Teachers’ Training College (ATTC) in 1972, to College of Education in 1975, and finally University of Education in 2009, there is no doubt that Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, is destined for gradual, but steady rise to international visibility.
The infrastructural transformation that is taking place in the institution was appropriately captured by the national president of the alumni association of the university, Pastor Amabibi Ferdinand, when he led a delegation of national and state executive officers of the body to see the vice chancellor, Professor Ozo-mekuri Ndimele.
He observed that old students of the university that returned for postgraduate studies were overwhelmed with how fast the architectural landscape of the place has changed, adding that the institution now has the aesthetic appeal of a university. The president explained that some old students who had not visited the place in the past five years will not believe that they are in their alma-mater when they come.
Pastor Amabibi also marveled at the upsurge in students’ enrolment at the undergraduate level, asserting that the institution which could barely fill the 1,700 carrying capacity allocated to it by JAMB some years ago, now has more than 15,000 admission seekers struggling for positions in the place.
He expressed happiness with the new face of the university, adding that the alumni association was pleased to have Professor Ndimele as the vice chancellor, and assured that the group would join hands with the management to sustain the trend.
Against this backdrop, the association condemned what it called campaigns of calumny against the university by some faceless individuals. Prominent among the accusations is that the postgraduate courses of the university are not accredited. The institution was also criticized for offering courses that are not related to teaching; with claims that such certificates will not be recognized. There is also allegation that the university management is extorting money from the students by forcing them to pay double levies, and that standards are compromised at the graduate school.
To begin with, those making these allegations are ignorant that all courses in the university, including 25 programmes of the postgraduate school, are accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC). Again, it is on record that the university management frowns seriously at all forms of unethical behavior, including extortion; to the extent that those found culpable are appropriately penalized, and there are verifiable proofs.
Furthermore, the introduction of non-teaching courses in the institution is in line with suggestions by distinguished scholars and concerned stakeholders. At two different events in the university, stakeholders presented irrefutable facts that IAUE has the faculty to expand its academic programmes to other fields, instead of restricting itself to education courses. Today, the university has commenced degree courses in Film and Theatre Studies, Library and Information Science, Office and Information Management, while Communication Arts has been added to the department of English.
Consequently, it no longer awards just the traditional Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree, but also awards Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (B Sc), as well as BA Ed, B SC Ed degrees. In fact, Professor Ndimele has introduced policies that hitherto were unimaginable in this part of the country. They include instituting a one million naira prize for the best graduating student in the university in order to encourage academic excellence, and the school-to-work programme which enables brilliant, but indigent students to work within the campus and are paid N15, 000 monthly from its internally generated revenue to enable them continue with their studies. These initiatives are the first in the South-South and beyond.
There is equally the establishment of a programme that enables HND holders to do a one year mop up study which leads to the award of a Bachelor’s degree, as well as post-doctoral degree programme. Meanwhile, an advanced level programme which offers direct entry admission into year two in most Nigerian universities is already running, while training for the initial staff to kick-start the distance learning centre has been concluded. Not long ago, the university signed a partnership with V.N. Karazin National University in Ukraine. The pact will allow students to run two years study in IAUE, and crossover to the university in Ukraine to complete their studies, and be awarded the degree of the foreign institution. These are deliberate efforts to open up more opportunities for university education for Rivers indigenes and residents alike. For the first time, two male students of the institution have been selected for training at Fulham Academy in England. This feat was attained because of the VC’s avowed commitment to making sports, especially football, an enterprise in IAUE. This has also earned him a prestigious award by the Higher Institutions Football League (HIFL). He is the first vice chancellor in Nigeria to get this honour.
But most outstanding is Professor Ndimele’s new approach to graduate studies in Nigeria. At a time when many universities celebrate the number of years students spend in their postgraduate schools, IAUE has proved, and rightly too, that students who are studious could graduate within the limit of the duration of their studies without compromising standards. So far, the education regulatory body in Nigeria has not found the university wanting in this regard.
Therefore, recent uncomplimentary remarks on the university, with particular emphasis on the graduate school, are nothing but intrigues to upset the vision of the management team. This unconstructive publicity is similar to the one that hit the study and skills acquisition initiative where the VC’s ingenuity was misrepresented by those who are not abreast with current happenings in the Nigerian labour market. That programme was visualized to equip students of the university with a degree in their course of study and a certificate in a skill of choice. That vision was the first of its kind in any Nigerian university. Therefore, with these laudable accomplishments and other unique efforts intended at repositioning the fortunes of the university by Professor Ndimele, the alumni association is disturbed by the antics of these faceless critics. The association is convinced that the vice chancellor and his management team mean well for the university, and their efforts are yielding noticeable results. But most inspiring are comments by a former university administrator who declared that he was fascinated with the tremendous developmental strides in the university. This approval is an eloquent endorsement of Professor Ndimele’s administrative ingenuity, competence, and purposeful management of the human capital and other resources available to him.
