New prospects and opportunities for learning in ABU
Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Professor Ibrahim Garba took the advantage of the institution’s 40th Convocation Ceremony in Zaria last Saturday to explain the initiatives by the mega-institution to open up and restructure the space to provide more opportunities for learning in a number ways. This, according to him, was necessitated by the need […]
Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Professor Ibrahim Garba took the advantage of the institution’s 40th Convocation Ceremony in Zaria last Saturday to explain the initiatives by the mega-institution to open up and restructure the space to provide more opportunities for learning in a number ways. This, according to him, was necessitated by the need to absorb the teeming population of candidates soliciting the university as first place of choice.
The establishment of ABU Distance Learning Centre, which had taken up since last year with over 1000 MBA students, is one of such initiatives. The university is currently awaiting the approval of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to commence B Sc. Business Administration, B Sc. Public Administration, B Sc. Economics and Postgraduate Diploma in Education programmes. Professor Garba also said this alone would provide opportunity for additional 5000 candidates to study through blended learning from their homes and workplaces.
The vice chancellor again fingered the university’s increased affiliations with other institutions as another opportunity for learning, as many Colleges of Education and Polytechnics have continued to affiliate with the university to offer degree courses in diverse fields of study, and allow students to earn ABU degrees from other tertiary institutions. The ABU pre-degree IJMB programme, according to the vice chancellor, had continued to attract affiliations from tertiary institutions all over the country.
ABU Business School, which has taken off as a faculty bringing Departments of Accounting, Business Administration and Economics together, is equally an advantage which candidates can fully take. Professor Garba said the school would, in no small measure, help open up space for expansion and introduction of additional related academic programmes. The arrangement is expected to commence with the new intakes during the 2017/2018 academic session.
The establishment of College of Health Sciences is quite cheering in this regard. The institution’s Faculty of Medicine has been successfully transformed into ABU College of Health Sciences headed by a Provost, which has already been appointed. The college has taken off with four Faculties namely Basic Clinical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Basic Medical Sciences and Allied Health Sciences. Along with this development, Professor Garba also said, was the commencement of three academic programmes billed to begin in 2017/2018 academic session with Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Sciences and B.Sc. Medical Radiography.
The vice chancellor was also happy to announce the introduction of e-learning methodology in academic delivery, saying the growing number of students and developments in pedagogy and technology had brought the imperative of the e-learning. “We have gone a long way in developing e-learning methodology and effective 2017/2018 academic session. We shall commence academic delivery using e-learning methodology with the first year and some other courses,” he said.
Remarkably, a number of new academic programmes have been introduced. Last year, for example, the university introduced B.Eng. Automotive Engineering and B.Eng. Mechatronics Engineering all in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, B.Sc. Forestry and B.Sc. Fisheries in the Department of Plant Science and Department of Animal Science, respectively. Equally, the institution introduced this year B.Eng. Mining Engineering in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering.
In the area of teaching and research infrastructure, he said the university has, within the limits of available funds, continued to improve and expand existing facilities for teaching and research, mostly using Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) and the Presidential Needs Assessment Intervention Funds. He acknowledged the support of World Bank and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) as well as Mac Arthur Foundation towards research, training and teaching in the university. The vice chancellor was grateful that these sources of funding had greatly augmented the meager budgetary provisions from government and brought about most of the achievements recorded.
The university has equally made headway in research and development. As part of its mandate the university has continued to pursue research in many areas of human endeavour primarily to extend the frontier of knowledge in various fields and towards finding solutions to human development problems. Professor Garba listed some of the well-known research initiatives from the university to include the development and construction of a mini-refinery, as well as upgrading, characterization and commercialization of zeolite catalysts for crude oil refining already developed from local clays, patented by the federal government in 2015. Another research initiative, according to him, included the design and building of the ABU Car since 2012 which has severally competed in the Shell Eco-Marathon in Europe and South Africa. Just this year the ABU Car III also competed in South Africa.
He said as part of the research effort scientists from ABU’s Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) and National Agricultural, Extension, Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS) have continued to develop and release varieties of groundnut, maize, cowpea and cotton seeds, which gained wide acceptance mostly in the dry Sudan-Sahel ecological zone which include Nigeria, Niger and Mali. This is in addition to the National Animal Production Research Institute’s continued development and propagation of its famous Shikabrown Chicken which is well adapted to tropical climate and gives best economic returns to poultry farmers.
ABU’s size and scope, he said, are huge endowments but also come with enormous responsibilities and challenges. Professor Garba, however, described as the “greatest challenge” the institution’s huge student and staff populations as well as the costs of running the university coupled with lack of commensurate funding and investment.
It was at this juncture the institution’s Chancellor and Obi of Onitsha Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe made a passionate appeal to the federal government at the convocation through relevant ministries and supervisory agencies to increase the funding and other support to the university and its research institutes. Such support, according to the chancellor, would empower the institution, especially the research institutes. This would enable them to extend their roles in the country’s agricultural industry through the development of high yielding seeds, design and production of simple agricultural machinery, dissemination of the state of the art farming techniques to farmers, production of disease resistant birds, prevention and cure of diseases in cattle and large ruminants among others.
Equally, the chancellor urged that the council and management of the university should, through the Advancement Unit, continue to search for donors to assist the institution to provide adequate structural and infrastructural facilities for expansion of programmes and enhancement of quality of teaching and learning situations.
This academic feat which was recorded in so short a period was not without the remarkable peace and stability the university has enjoyed over the years as pointed out by the vice chancellor. Professor Garba lauded the courage, patience and resilience of the teaching and non-teaching staff and indeed the students who have continued to give their best despite the challenging learning conditions. This was even as he commended the host communities for their cooperation and tolerance, especially where a large number of students reside and cohabit with them due to shortage of on-campus accommodation.
Umar is the Faculty Officer, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.