Richard Elesho
Prosperous individuals, corporate organizations, and governments at all levels have been called upon to give a helping hand to private universities in order to accelerate the country’s march to industrial and economic well-being.
Vice Chancellor of a Kogi-based private educational concern, Salem University, Prof. Alewo Johnson Akubo, who made the call in Lokoja on Monday, pointed out that after all products of private universities are used by both the private and public sectors.
He spoke to journalists at the pre convocation press briefing of the institution. He disclosed that 499 students with 41 of them bagging First Class are participating in the combined exercise, adding that a Professor of Political Economy, Sam Egwu, would deliver the convocation lecture on Wednesday at the Chapel of Peace.
“We have a total of 499 graduating students, across seven colleges including the College of Management and Social Sciences, College of Natural and Applied Science, College of Humanity, College of Education, College of Information and Communication Technology, College of Law and the Post Graduate school.
“We have a total of 41 First Class across the seven programmes in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 sets.\
“We also have a new college that is about to hit the ground running now, and that is the College of Basic Medicine, Medical Science. We just got the approval from the National University’s Commission about two months ago”, he said.
The Vice-Chancellor hinted that the university had successfully passed the accreditation process for its programmes, achieving full accreditation status in all.
Akubo said that the institution recorded a notable achievement when its College of Law received full accreditation from the National Universities Commission, NUC, a significant accomplishment for a private university.
He stressed that the university had seen three sets of law graduates sent to the Nigerian Law School, with the first two batches already graduated and the third set in preparation.
The Vice-Chancellor noted that the university expanded its postgraduate programmes initially offering limited postgraduate programs, primarily an M.sc, MBA, and business administration.
According to him, following a successful resource verification, Salem University has expanded its postgraduate offerings from Postgraduate Diplomas (PGD) to Doctorate levels (PhD) across the seven programs.
He revealed that there were plans in the pipeline to submit additional programmes for verification in the bid to expand and enhance their postgraduate education.
Akubo pointed out that students’ enrollment remained that major challenge facing the institution despite its successes and achievements, saying, “Students’ enrollment remains a persistent challenge for the university.”