After 12 years of educating postgraduate students, the Pan-Atlantic University (PAU), Lagos, has matriculated its first set of undergraduate students at its Ibeju-Lekki campus.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof Juan Elegido, said the university deliberately chose to start small with three programmes – Accounting, Business Administration and Mass Communication – and grow gradually so it can offer its 86 pioneer students the best.
He said this was the reason the freshers are being taught by the most senior lecturers in the university.
He said: “Talking now from experience, it has very great advantage. One: because we have fewer students, we also have few lectures. Now that is important because it means that we are able to bring into the university lecturers little by little. That means we are keeping the culture we have here in the Lagos Business School, the culture we have in SMC (School of Media and Communication) in Victoria Island.
“I think more importantly, because we have few students we are able to do some things that are not common in many universities. You see the situations in many universities, the senior professors teach in the doctoral programmes, the masters’ programmes, if at all they will be teaching in first year courses. The fact is that the people in the first year in this university because are not too many of them…all our very senior people are really concentrating and doing their best in teaching those students. At the end of the say, it shows in the quality of education people get.”
Moving from postgraduate to undergraduate has been a different ball game, says Dr Mike Okolo, Acting Dean, School of Media and Communication.
Okolo said the new students have added colour to the university’s experience, which the workers are happy about.
“It is a thing of joy. It is not easy to have 86 young students being pioneers of such big project,” he said.
He said his first day in an undergraduate class clearly showed that the members of staff of the university had to employ another set of skills to manage the younger students. He added that this shift was anticipated and the students
“Let me say that if you go with the mindset that you are dealing with the same levels of persons, you will run into a problem. I have taught several years at the masters’ level and I will share my experience with you. If I have a lecture and I step into the class, as I am walking towards the centre of the class, people could be talking. But the moment I turn and face the classroom, everyone would go quiet and the class will start. It is completely different from the undergraduate programme. My first entry into the class as I used the same style, nobody noticed I was there. I greeted two times. Only a third of the class answered. I had to start shouting ‘sit down everybody; sit down, sit down.’ Now I am a teacher. It is completely different but it is not wrong – I mean wrong in the sense that that is their age. We have pre-empted this – developed skills to manage them,” he said.
Director of Students Affairs, Mr Kingsley Ukaoha, said the students are not restricted like in other universities but understand there are consequences for not living responsibly – like not being allowed to write examinations if they do not meet the 80 per cent attendance benchmark.
The university’s Director of Development, Mr Frank Wiggle, said 15 per cent of the 86 students are on full or partial scholarship endowed by the university and other sponsors. He said the scholarships are there to ensure that students who could not afford the fees are admitted.
“We have corporate entities and individuals that are directly interested in sponsoring students. They see it as a way of contributing to personnel development of the country. It also shows the confidence they repose in us to train them well,” he said.
