The Nigerian Naval Engineering College NNEC Sapele, Delta State is to be upgraded to university status.
The Commandant of the College, Rear Admiral Akinjola Johnson stated this in Abuja when he paid a courtesy call on the President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) Ibikunle Ogunbayo.
Rear Admiral Johnson said the main purpose of the visit was to seek possible ways of collaborating with COREN as a regulatory body for its professional advice since the Nigerian Naval Engineering College is an engineering-based institution.
He said, “As part of the Navy’s efforts to localise overseas training, the Nigerian Navy established the Nigerian Navy Technical Training centre at a temporary site in Port Harcourt in 1982.
“The base which was renamed Nigerian Naval Engineering College in 2003, has seven schools namely, marine engineering, automobile, nuclear, and biological. Others are chemical defence school which includes damage control, fire fighting training, and air engineering schools. The accreditation process for Higher National Diploma (HND) electrical electronics technology and for ND and HND in Marine Engineering technology was in progress and had reached an advanced stage.
Responding, Ogunbayo, an engineer, pointed out that the Act establishing COREN mandated it to regulate the practice and training of engineering personnel.
Ogunbayo made it clear that COREN would not compromise in ensuring the standard and quality of engineering programmes run in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
He expressed the need for a pre-visitation of the institution to ascertain the level of preparedness of the college before embarking on full accreditation.
The University of Benin, Benin City on friday admitted five thousand, nine hundred and fifteen students after subscribing to relevant matriculation oath for the 2012/2013 academic session.
Prof. Osayuki Oshodin, Vice- Chancellor of the University at the ceremony charged the matriculating students to be loyal and true to the matriculation oath of obedience and respect to the authority of the University that has offered them admission.
He admonished them to protect and guard their new status jealously, and avoid any unwholesome behavior that may pose threat to the peace and progress of the University.
While administering the matriculation oath, Prof. Oshodin said the University administration frowns at the indecent clothes many of the female students put on in the name of fashion.
He said the attitude is disgusting as it has been identified to be one of the major factors responsible for cases of sexual harassment experienced by students.
The Vice- Chancellor therefore wish that the female students will always appear responsible at all gatherings.
Advising the students against Examination malpractice, that is a serious misconduct in the institution, Prof. Oshodin said the University authority has zero tolerance for such nefarious act, and its ready at all time to apply appropriate sanctions against offenders.
“The burning issues of cultism is of great concern to the University. I know some of you may have been initiated into one cult group or the other before you gained admission into this institution, let it be know to you that the our security network will fish you out”.
Fresh and returning students of Delta State University Abraka are having a tough time securing accommodation in the university’s hostels available on campus.
As at the time of compiling this report, many of the students who resumed for a new academic session last week are yet to secure spaces in Abraka, Ethiope and Council Halls, the three main hostels on campus.
Our correspondent gathered that the delay was caused by decision of the hostel management to use a balloting system in place of the first come, first serve system that was used before.
The balloting exercise which started on Monday has been disappointing for many students, especially those who picked NO.
Frustrated by delay and disappointment of the balloting system, some of the students are now looking for spaces in privately owned hostels within and outside the campus.
A student who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said the balloting process has effectively reduced the number of students who will stay in the hostel for the session. She added that the first come first serve arrangement was better because it gave those who resumed early an advantage.
She said: “This balloting system has reduced the number of people who will stay in the hostel. Once you pick NO, there is nothing you can do other than making alternative arrangements. I prefer the first come; first serve system because it gave those of us who resume early an advantage in securing hostel accommodation.
Our correspondent also gathered that some students who were lucky in the balloting exercise are making brisk business by selling their slots to desperate students at exorbitant prices.
The road that leads to the main campus of the Federal University of Oye (FUOYE) is bad, causing untold suffering for students living off-campus. OLATUNJI AWE (200-Level Political Science, Ekiti State University
The university took off amid controversy last year. Two communities in Ekiti State – Oye and Ikole – were locked in battle over where the Federal University of Oye (FUOYE) should be sited. The rift was settled with the establishment of campuses in both towns.
A few weeks after the institution took off, there seems to be no hope of repairing the road leading to the Oye Campus, which has been bad for about 10 years. Students and staff go through pains everyday plying the road.When CAMPUSLIFE visited the school last week, our reporters experienced what students go through on the road. Many commercial cab and motorcycle operators have deserted the route, leaving students living off-campus to trek to school.
The few motorcyclists plying the road have doubled the fare from N60 to N120, which the students said the cannot afford. Some of them told our correspondents that they spend about N300 daily on transport from their hostels, which are not far from the campus.
Students also complained that accidents are frequent because of the bad road.
Two students were said to have been injured about three weeks ago on a motorcycle as they were passing the road to the campus. As they walk down the road to school, the male students discuss football and their female colleagues engage chatter. They implored government to come to their aid, saying the situation has made them to attend lectures late.
CAMPUSLIFE observed that the road is being rehabilitated. Though, the contractor has stopped work because of rain, the road has been graded with gravel and clay sand.
A senior official in the university management, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE on the condition of anonymity, described the road as a nightmare for users. “The road has been abandoned for about 10 years now. Successive administration in the state played politics with it. Before FUOYE was sited here, the road used to be bad compared to its present state.
University as defined by Wikipedia, an online free encyclopedia, “is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in a variety of subject and provide both graduate and post graduate education”
The word “university” came originally from Latin word “universitias”, which referred to a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, co-operation etc.
Though the emergence of present form of university education system emerged hundreds of years ago under the Latin Church. The first university in Europe with a structure was the University of Bologna in Italy in 1088.
In Nigeria, the first university was established in 1948 in Ibadan. The University College, Ibadan was opened as an affiliate of University of London. However, it became full-fledged federal university in l962.
Afterwards, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, were founded. The University of Lagos (UNILAG) was also established by the Federal government about the time.
In 1970, the newly-created mid-western Region also established University of Benin (UNIBEN), bringing the number of universities to six. Universities of Lagos and Ibadan belonged to the Federal government, while the remaining four (ABU, OAU, UNN and UNIBEN) were establihsed by regional governments.
The development of university in numerical terms is indeed encouraging, though the number of universities has increased rapidly in the recent time but yet do not meet the demand of higher education by the ever-increasing students’ population in the country.
According to the National Universities Commission (NUC) figure, there were 104 universities, comprising 27 federal universities, 36 states and 41 private universities across the country as at April 2010.
These universities are established purposely to offer conducive atmosphere for learning and human development for socio-political and economic development as reflected in the National Policy on education.
According to the policy, the universities are to do the following: (a) To contribute to National Development through high level manpower training (b) To develop and inculcate proper values for the survival of the individual and society (c) To develop intellectual capacity of individual to understand and appreciate their local and external environment, among others.
Though, the evolution of universities in Nigeria is impressive, the quality of graduates produced is very discouraging. This may not be unconnected to the myriad of problems mitigating against achieving the desired educational policy and objective of the nation.
These problems, though differ from the government-owned and private universities but their effect on the quality and standard of universities in Nigeria are terrible.
The problems includes inadequate funding from both the Federal and State Governments. This is seriously affecting the administration of universities in all ramifications. To some extent, private universities are better-off in terms of funding as proprietors are doing everything possible to ensure that their institutions are not starved of funds like their government counterparts.
A poor and dilapidated infrastructure is another problem facing the government universities.
Students’ hostels, lecture theatres, laboratories and offices are in bad shape, thereby making the environment not conducive for learning and research.
Problem of staff shortages in both academics and non-academic departments is another factor that stands against performance of government-owned institutions. Qualified lecturers from Nigerian universities seek greener pasture abroad. This is called brain drain.
Other problems include interference by government officials, students’ unionism,cultism, labour dispute, unethical practice in admission process, examination malpractice and sexual exploitation of female students etc.
In conclusion, for meaningful development to take place in the university system, government must be ready to address the problems contributing to their non-performance as highlighted above.
There must also be political will on the part of the government to tackle the problems head on.
Funds should be released to the universities to embark on infrastructural development. Qualified teaching and non-teaching staff should be employed, while the condition of service and pay package in government universities be improved to attract qualified persons into these schools.
Problems of cultism as well as unionism should also be addressed, while regulatory body like the NUC be strengthened to perform it statutory responsibilities and check unethical practices in the universities.
