The Acting Vice-Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Professor Okechuku Onuchuku, has reiterated his commitment to building a robust university dedicated to quality teaching, research, and improved welfare of staff and students.
Onuchuku, who disclosed this in his New Year message to the university community in Port Harcourt as the school resumed academic activities after the Christmas and New Year breaks, said plans are on top gear to take the University to its academic peak as part of his avowed objectives.
The Acting Vice-Chancellor commended the Governor of Rivers State, Barrister Nyesom Wike, for his support to the institution.
He also appreciated the university community, Alumni, the host communities, security agencies, and other stakeholders for their support towards building a robust university.
He reaffirmed that as the Acting Vice-Chancellor, he would offer inspirational and transformational leadership to take the institution to its expected position.
“My role as the Acting Vice-Chancellor is to serve this community of scholars and administrators through inspirational and transformational leadership that would take this University to where we all want it to be”, he said.
Professor Onuchuku urged the staff to adhere strictly to all the extant laws that govern the operational structure of the institution without cutting corners and making cheap compromises.
He advised against engaging in actions that would make the public lose faith in the capacity of the university to produce a competent workforce for the nation and promised to give more attention to research and development.
“We shall empower the existing research and development unit to engage in high-impact research that can be utilised by the industry.
“We must engage in quality teaching and research that solve problems and equip our students with the right skills and moral values to transmit to the rest of society”, he said.
The Economics expert further reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to promoting entrepreneurship education that would equip the students with basic relevant skills to make them industry-ready graduates.
He also urged the lecturers to properly guide the students on contemporary ways of conducting quality research to ignite broad-minded learning, as he emphasised the role of well-articulated research in national development.
Professor Onuchuku noted that ethics and self-restraint are core values that define the worth of every organisation and warned that any staff who engages in any form of unethical practice would be sanctioned.
He noted that as a pioneer in the comity of specialised tertiary institutions in Nigeria, the expansion of the scope of academic activities in recent times has placed the university in a unique position and tasked the staff to use the opportunity to make more contributions to national development.
The Vice-Chancellor, while admitting that the remarkable achievements made in the institution would not have been possible without the commitment of staff, applauded them for keeping the wheels of academic and administrative activities rolling at the institution.
Onuchuku further enjoined the students to make optimal use of their time at the university to achieve their goals and disclosed that expansion of academic programmes would offer more opportunities for university education in Rivers State.
He assured that his administration would build more infrastructure and other facilities to create a conducive learning environment for the students to realise their potential, as he wished the academic community a prosperous 2023.

By: King Onunwor