Edo University Iyamho has become a game changer in university education in Nigeria as it prepares students for leadership in a dynamic world. The desire of Edo State government to provide quality education is demonstrated in the world-class facilities provided in the university as the young ivory tower admits new set of 503 students during its 5th matriculation held last Friday, writes CHINAKA OKORO .
For Mr Uwaji Okperi, one of the students who matriculated to study Engineering at the Edo State University Iyamho, choosing the university as his first choice was rewarding. His reasons: The learning environment was conducive.
The university has standard facilities for practical and theoretical learning for each department. Because of this, he said he will recommend the school to his friends who are seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
“There are no illegal activities here such as cultism and drug abuse. This is because the school authorities will not condone any of such”, he stated.
Without doubt, Edo University Iyamho has become a game changer in university education in Nigeria with the sole aim to prepare students for leadership in a dynamic world.
The desire of Edo State government to provide quality education is demonstrated in the world-class facilities provided in the university.
To achieve world-class institution that impacts world-class knowledge to the students, management of the institution began to put in place innovations to make it different from others.
Some of these innovations, according to the Vice-Chancellor Emmanuel Aluyor, a Professor of Engineering, include the use of CANVAS LMS/AIS and Smart/Electronic Boards for effective teaching and learning delivery.
By doing so, the university became the first in West Africa to acquire the CANVAS Learning Management System (LMS) and now the Academic Information System (AIS) to deliver the highest possible quality education available anywhere in the world to the students.
Authorities of the university did not stop at just the acquisition of these latest learning gadgets, it also provide regular training for members of staff of the school to enable them to make effective use of the modern facilities available to them.
“Essentially, the training, which is a continuous exercise, is to ensure that we get the maximum benefits from these facilities that we have acquired for use in the university.
“We already have a requirement that all our academic members of staff should be computer literate, but being a computer literate is not enough to be able to use a smart board and other modern teaching and learning tools, hence, the training.
“We do these training from time to time to maximise the use of these facilities and get the benefits for the students,” he said.
Apart from providing a good learning and teaching atmosphere, the university boss said the place is a no-go area for gangsters, cultism and other social vices as doing so will attract expulsion from the school.
These virtues, perhaps, remained the reasons for parents to make Edo University Iyamho, first choice for their children and wards.
Mustapher Oloku, whose nephew is among the 503 students who matriculated, last Friday, has this to say: “Unlike other institutions of higher learning where cultism discouraged parents, in the school, there is nothing like that as anyone caught will be expelled.”
Besides, he said strike which had always prolonged the graduation period of students in other universities has no place in Iyamho as four years is four years.
While addressing the matriculating students, Prof. Aluyor added that smoking, possession of hard drugs, cultism and other acts of indiscipline would not be condoned, urging them to make the best use of the facilities provided for them to enhance their learning in the university which remained the primary purpose of their coming to the school.
For emphasis, the institution’s management during the last matriculation which is the fifth since its inception, advised the matriculating students for the 2019/2020 academic session not to engage in any form of gangsterism or immoral behaviours as such would attract expulsion.
He said the university prides itself to be the model for universities in Nigeria with its world- class technologically enhanced teaching and learning facilities.
He said: “One of such technologically enhanced teaching and learning tools in the university is the CANVAS: Learning Management System (LMS) and our robust Academic Information System (AIS).
“In addition to the advanced technologically enhanced teaching, the university has adopted the Competence-based curriculum in medicine, student centre learning model in teaching all our courses in the university and recently, the Outcome-based Education (OBE) learning system for the Faculty of Engineering.
“Our other enhanced teaching and learning tools include power laboratories for Physiology students, fully equipped Engineering workshop for teaching multi-scale manufacturing, skills laboratories with high and low fidelity manikins for Nursing and Medical students, a world- class Mass Communication studio, legal clinic for Law students, Smart Boards and temperature-controlled classrooms with multimedia projectors, among others.”
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Wishing the matriculating students a memorable sojourn throughout the period of their studies, the university boss thanked parents for honouring the invitation extended to them, adding that the university has also put in place a CANVAS Learning Management System to enable them to partner with management of the institute in the training of their children to be leaders of tomorrow.
Prof. Aluyor noted that it is the quest for members of staff to go beyond their comfort zone and to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the development of the university that was the driving force behind the training and acquisition of these latest teaching and learning aids.
According to him, it is the school’s commitment to provide the necessary and best legacies for the members of staff, students and the university at large as a world-class university in modern-day teaching and learning environment.
He explained that the aim of putting in place such system is to enable the parents/guardians anywhere they are, to monitor the activities and performance of their child/ward in terms of classroom attendance, text assignment and examination results.
Highlight of the ceremony was the administration of oath on the students and the symbolic signing of the matriculation oath which admits them as full students of the university.
Edo University, Iyamho is a state government-owned tertiary institution founded in 2016 and located in Iyamho, a town in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.
The university was established exactly on March 23 2016 having been approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC) as Nigeria’s 41st state university.
Since its establishment, the institution has excelled in lips and bounds as a world-class institution which has remained the dream of the founders of the university by making it a place of envy in terms of character and learning.
Praising the founders of the University for their Foresight, the Chancellor of the university and Chairman of Caverton Offshore Support Group, Dr. Aderemi Makanjuola on Saturday, November 2, last year when he was installed as the first Chancellor of the institution and bestowed with a doctorate degree in Business Administration.
He had said: “I learnt about this university and its uniqueness through friends and associates who told me that Edo University, Iyamho, is the Harvard, Cambridge and IMT of our time. I was not in doubt of this claim because I know that great things are usually found in the heart, as Heart Beat of the Nation.
“I see Edo State redefining education in Nigeria. It is with this sense that I accept the offer from His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, to be the First Chancellor of this great institution of higher learning.
“Nigeria has been yearning for this kind of education since independence, but no one was ready to face the challenge and come up with a world-class university of this status.
I must commend the founding fathers of the University for their foresight in establishing a university that competes favourably with Ivy League universities such as Cambridge and Harvard. I must say that EUI’s facilities are among the best in the world.”
Corroborating the Chancellor’s assertion, Mr. Kehinde Smith said: “I am impressed with the university. The infrastructure is excellent for an out-of-town university. I would recommend Nigerians to send their children there.”
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