Prospects for Academic Development

Prospects For Academic Development

(a)    The institution will be a comprehensive specialized university offering academic programmes in Clinical Medical and Dentistry; Basic Medical and Applied Health Sciences; Pharmacy; Engineering; The Built Environment; Natural and Applied; Law; Arts, Social and Management Sciences; and Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. These programmes will be mounted in phases over a period of twenty-five (25) years.

(b) The University will attract students from all over Nigeria and abroad, irrespective of ethnicity, social status and religious or political persuasion.

(c) A parcel of land covering about 80 hectares has been acquired in the Igbo-Eno community to accommodate all its academic and other activities. The University will provide adequate physical and infrastructural facilities such as laboratories, workshops, lecture theatres, seminar and conference rooms, digital and overhead projectors, communication systems, audio-visual facilities as well as library resources to enhance the quality of teaching and community services.

(d)   The University will pay adequate attention to its carrying capacity and will only enroll students that could be adequately catered for taking into consideration the human, physical and material resources available. Attention will be paid also to the student population growth rate and the 60:40 science-arts enrolment ratio prescribed by Government. This is in a bid to move the nation forward technologically.

(e)     Attention will be paid to the admission process to ensure that only the best of the available qualified candidates, based on our admission criteria, are admitted. To this end, the University will conduct its own admission examination/ interview in addition to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examinations for prospective candidates. Admissions will however be open to all irrespective of sex, tribe, race, or religion. The welfare of students shall also be given priority attention through adequate provision the security of lives and property, assistance in securing decent and affordable accommodation, access to municipal facilities and investment in other conditions that ensure conducive learning environment.

   (f)    The University will ensure quality teaching and learning through the attraction, recruitment and retention of the highest caliber of academic, non-academic and support staff. Staff selection and recruitment will be based exclusively on merit through the instrumentality of scrupulous and unimpeachable screening processes. The University will appoint only staff that can provide the good leadership necessary for the achievement of its goals and objectives. The University will create a workshop environment conducive to effective teaching and research by staff. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will be provided to enable staff to deploy IT facilities for teaching and research.

(g)   Functional and relevant staff development programmes shall be put in place through deliberate efforts at allocating at least 2% of the total recurrent expenditure to staff development especially in the formative years of the University, in addition to forging fruitful collaboration with funding agencies and development partners for the training of staff.

(h)  All staff shall be well remunerated with packages that can better the average in the sub-sector. In addition, all deserving staff will be rewarded periodically for creativity, dedication, productivity, and loyal to the ideals of the University.

(i)The University will pay particular attention to curriculum development to ensure that the curricula for the different programmes are able to respond to the dynamics of the need for graduates to be self-reliant. They will embark on periodic review of its curriculum and programme offerings to guarantee relevance to the society and to the needs of industry in line with the guidelines contained in the benchmark minimum academic standards (BMAS) of the national universities commission. It will also assign its resources in such a manner as to maintaining the highest standards of academic quality.

(j)Staff will also be encouraged to engage in industry-based research to improve their teaching and community service.

(k)All efforts will be made to ensure that the university id adequately funded. This will be achieved through contributions from students’ fees, research, consultancy activities and linkages, among others. The university will also continue to work out strategies that will attract new resource, guarantee their judicious use, and ensure that the resources are invested appropriately.

(l)The university will operate a stable academic calendar through proactively tracking and monitoring industrial matters and liaising with appropriate authorities with a view to ensuring industrial harmony and campus peace conducive to meaningful and regular academic activities. The university will continually engage the student mind and body through well phased academic, broad-based games and sporting activities as well as gainful social activities. Furthermore, the university will put appropriate machinery in place to monitor the academic activities of its staff and students to ensure proper delivery and acquisition of knowledge.

(m) The university will inculcate in its students, a good blend of theoretical knowledge with practical (hands-on) as well as entrepreneurial skills to produce self-reliance graduates capable of creating employment and thus contributing not only to capacity building but also to the general economic development.