VC Calls For Upgrading Of Alvan Ikoku College

The Alvan Ikoku Federal
College of Education, Owerri, has urged the Federal Government to upgrade the institution to a university to enable it attain academic excellence.
The Provost of the college, Dr Blessing Ijioma, made the call when the Imo Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) visited the school as part of activities marking its 2014 Press Week.
Ijioma, who was represented by the Deputy Provost,  Dr Godson Okere, said the college had the personnel, facilities and experience for the upgrade.
According to her, the college has the wherewithal to attain a university status as it has been affiliated to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) for the past 32 years.
The provost said that since 2010, the present administration had focused on repositioning the college to become one of the best in Africa.
“The school currently has about 170 doctorate degree holders and 380 masters’ degree graduates as members of the academic staff.
“We also have about 205 academic staff at various stages of completing their PhD programmes in different Nigerian universities and abroad, with 180 running the Masters programme.”
Ijioma added that more than 150 academic and non-academic staff of the college had benefitted from the institution and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) sponsorship to local and international conferences, seminars, workshops and skills acquisition programmes.
The provost said the school also witnessed an upward trend in the establishment of new infrastructure and the renovation of old ones.