An erudite Professor of Library and lnformation Studies, Prof. Zakari Mohammed, of the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU, Zaria) Zaria, Kaduna State, has said that his first impression about the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) is imppressive.
Prof. Mohammed who is the leader of the accreditation team from the National Universities Commission (NUC) to FUOYE for the accreditation exercise in FUOYE’s Department of Library and Information Studies made the remarks while speaking with the media team of the University.
He spoke on behalf of the other NUC delegates who were in FUOYE for accreditation exercise for five departments, namely Criminology and Security Studies, Accounting, Business Administration and Mathematics Education.
Prof. Mohammed said: ” We paid a courtesy visit to the VC to tell him that we are very much around and that we need his cooperation. He shouldn’t see us as those who have come to witchhunt his programmes but rather to strengthen them. Our idea is that at the end of the day the VC realizes that we are here to strengthen whatever he is doing in this University. We are to commend the good things here and where there are weaknesses, we also point out for the need to improve.
“My impression about this University as a very young University is just like every other young varsity, you can’t expect any one from Zaria, or one from Ibadan to expect to see the same thing in those Universities that have been in existence for many years. It is for us to appreciate the condition the young Universities find themselves and see how we can improve it so that at the end of the day they would be happy that we have come.”
Responding to the NUC team leader’s comments, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, assured them of getting the best of their expectations from FUOYE as well as the hospitality of the University community. He advised the NUC to consider strengthening the professional relationship that should exist between the academia and the corporate world in order to achieve more of the avalanche opportunities in a town and gown rapport.
Prof. Fasina said: “Our great University, FUOYE, was established in 2012 and since then we have been upwardly mobile in terms of infrastructural development and promoting learning, research and having progressive impact on our host community. We have 11 faculties and about thirty students. We have ventures , part time programmes,, JUPEB, pre- degree programmes through which we have been making efforts to shore up the internally generated revenue of the University. .
” We are committed to training and re-training the staff for optimal performance and this has been yeilding admirable results. We are striving for the best and this is the most important, in spite of our lean resources. We will welcome suggestions for us on ways to improve. We are here to ensure that the best is done.
“We have observed that e-learning is becoming a newly welcomed idea in teaching in our tertiary institutions but we want to advise that there are professional courses that e-learning cannot adequately take care of. For instance, in my field, Soil Science, which is based mainly on practical teaching. E-learning cannot adequately take care of it. In the light of this, we also want to suggest that we encourage more of the town and gown relationship in teaching and research endeavours in the Universities. This is because professionals who have practised for many years in their fields have quite a while lot to offer the University system in terms of practical teaching, research and impacting knowledge.
“There is need for us to work with the industries, and from our experience through our collaborations with industries and the corporate bodies, we have been able to innovate and invent things that have helped us solve many of our problems in my area of study. This goes to further lend credence to the fact that if you motivate, you will innovate,” the VC advised.
