Professor Ikechukwu N.S. Dozie, the Vice-Chancellor, of Imo State Government-owned Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University, Ogboko in Ideato South LGA spoke to Athan Agbakwuru on the situation of the institution.
Q: The admission program of the K.O. Mbadiwe University -How did it go? How many students have you admitted under your tenure?
A: The 2021/22 admission process is going on very well as stipulated by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). All admissions are being processed on the JAMB Central Admissions Platform (CAPS). We have so far admitted about 120 students. We hope to admit more candidates who have shown interest in the university before the Matriculation ceremony scheduled to take place on May 27, 2022.
Q: The university successfully garnered accreditation for her programs from the NUC. What does it portend and imply for both the University and students.
A: Successful accreditation of programmes by the National Universities Commission (NUC) implies that those programmes are being run according to the stipulations of NUC Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS).
The overriding implication for the university is that those programmes satisfy the provisions of BMAS for teaching and learning aimed at producing quality graduates for self-actualization and for the task of nation building.
The overriding implication for students is that the products (i.e. graduates) of those programmes will qualify on graduation to embark on the mandatory one year National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) programme.
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Q: Do you have quality and innovative manpower and academia ready to meet up to new global standards?
A: Yes.We have quality manpower who are ready to conduct teaching and learning and overall university business in line with global best practices. We have a policy of constant engagement with our staff through training and re-training programmes to keep them abreast with modern trends in curriculum design and development and overall teaching and mentorship.
Q: A major challenge of Nigerian Universities is the epidemic of cult groups whose activities frequently end in social mishaps and crisis that threaten academic work? How do you plan to checkmate such occurrences?
A: As a preventive measure, we have a policy of engaging our students on a regular basis through orientations, workshops and seminars on the dangers of involvement in anti-social activities and behaviors including cultism. We also have regulations contained in the Student Handbook that deal with misconducts by students and their associated sanctions/penalties/punishments.
As Management, we enforce those sanctions on students who flout the rules and regulations of the university including membership of secret cults. The sanctions are pronounced after the affected students would have been given an opportunity to defend themselves before a disciplinary committee of Senate. This implies that the students will always have the right of fair hearing before being punished.
Q: Tertiary institutions are bedeviled with very unethical practices such as exchange of money or sex for grades. How do you plan to tackle this?
A: We prevent such unethical practices through frequent engagement with staff and students. We also punish such acts of gross misconduct by invoking relevant sanctions on erring staff or student, after they have been given the right of fair hearing.
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