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By Tunde Uchegbuo
The acting vice-chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Professor Okechuku Onuchuku, has revealed that he is committed to positioning the university among the best tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
He said he would guard the integrity of the degrees awarded to ensure that the university under his watch does not lose public trust in its capability to train competent manpower.
Onuchuku hinted that achieving such would be the only way he would repay the state governor, Barr Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, for his benevolence and confidence in appointing him to superintend over the institution.
He made this disclosure on Monday, May 9, at a media briefing in his office as part of the activities marking the 39th and 40th convocation ceremony of the university.
Onuchuku, who enumerated some of his achievements since he assumed office, revealed that the first thing he did was to set up two committees to review programmes of the postgraduate school, as well as harmonise the undergraduate counterpart in line with the National Universities Commission (NUC) benchmark.
He also directed a downward review of non-statutory charges and school fees paid by undergraduate and their postgraduate counterparts and initiated payment of school fees in two installments.
He said these were done to reflect the realities of the prevailing economic situation.
The acting vice-chancellor announced that twenty-one (21) programmes of the institution have received five years full accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
His administration, he added, has provided classroom furniture, reactivated broken-down electricity generating sets and restored damaged power lines at the Ndele campus, and commenced monthly fumigation of classrooms, offices, and residential areas in the three campuses.
To secure the university land from further encroachment, he rebuilt damaged fences at Rumuolumeni and Ndele campuses, expanded the estate department and provided more facilities for work, and renovated students’ hostels at the main campus, resulting in increased demand for campus accommodation.
Similarly, offices were furnished with the necessary equipment to make the workplace comfortable for more efficient service.
In the same vein, the administration built three standard kitchens where students could prepare their meals to discourage cooking in the hostels and eating sub-standard food prepared by vendors.
To make the high-impact research papers of lecturers in the university globally accessible, the vice-chancellor disclosed that management is investing more in information and communications technology (ICT) to boost the exploration of opportunities in the growing digital economy by staff and students.
Onuchuku said the investment would bridge the digital divide between the university and the rest of the world by enhancing the institution’s visibility, ranking, and competitiveness in this age of knowledge globalisation.
The acting vice-chancellor clarified why his administration established a full-fledged Faculty of Agriculture in the university. He said it would boost food production in the state.
The Professor of Econometrics explained that the university has a duty to play in changing the narrative that Rivers State gets much of its food from outside.
“Nobody can under-estimate the importance of a Faculty of Agriculture in a state where much of our food supply comes from outside.
“As a university, we have a duty to help change the unacceptable narrative within the shortest possible timeline.”
A total of 3,796 graduates would be admitted into postgraduate degrees, while 3,751 would be awarded degrees at the undergraduate level.
