The Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt, has called on the Rivers State Governor, Nyesome Wike, to modify its name to Ignatius Ajuru University (IAU), for an all- round academic excellence.
The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, made the call in his address at the University’s 38th Convocation Ceremony at the weekend.
Ndimele noted that amidst the institution’s progress in recent years, the name, Ignatius Ajuru has constituted a major setback to the attainment of the desired greatness which he said had cost the university a lot during verification by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Ndimele stated that the vision of the university’s founding fathers was to have a specialised university to train teacher, regretting however, that the scope was limited.
In his words: “The greatest of all barriers to our attaining the desired greatness is our name. We agree with the vision of the founders to have a specialised university to train teachers, but the mandate is too limiting. Each time we want to introduce a new course in a core subject, so long as it is B.Ed; we pay heavily for NUC’s verification. We have sent a proposal to His Excellency for the modification of the name of the university from Ignatius Ajuru University of Education to Ignatius Ajuru University.”
Enumerating the challenges of the institution, Ndimele also revealed that the university lacked staff in critical areas of operation, stating that should the situation continue, it would lose the NUC’s accreditation upon next visit.
The Vice Chancellor said, “the university is grossly understaffed in critical areas of operation. Where a university runs her graduate programmes with about one-third of its workforce as adjunct professors/visiting scholars and paid from its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is bad enough. Staff recruitment is critical now than ever or we stand to lose accreditation in virtually all programmes when NUC visits by the first quarter of next year”.
Also speaking, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, IAUE, HRM King (Dr) Aaron Miller Ikuru, averred that a fundamental requirement of success in every given university system is the presence of high calibre academic staff, stating however that the university is currently deficient in that area.
Ikuru said that the university was at the threshold of another accreditation exercise and prayed the state governor for the kind approval of the university’s written appeal for staff recruitment.
Describing the vic-chancellor as an administrator per excellence, focused, diligent and a futuristic idealist, Ikuru said, “he has restructured the academic curriculum of the university by the remodelling of existing programmes and the addition of new programmes. Hence the preparation and submission of the Proposed Amendment Law of the University to His Excellency to conform with the current realities in the university. We pray His Excellency to direct the State House of Assembly consideration of the law for your assent, Sir”.

By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu