NUC approves 29 new programmes for Lokoja Federal Varsity

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved 29 new undergraduate programmes for the Federal University, Lokoja commencing from the 2019/2020 academic session. The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Angela Miri, disclosed this at a pre-convocation press briefing to mark the third and fourth combined convocation ceremony of the institution, on Tuesday in Lokoja.

Miri said that the university was set to invite the NUC for resource verification of the 29 new programmes approved by the commission, in addition to the courses currently being run by the institution.

She listed the newly-approved undergraduate programmes to include Theatre Art, Mass Communication, Sociology, Archaeology, Botany, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Zoology, Biotechnology, Industrial Chemistry, Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Administration and Public Administration. Others are English, History, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Guidance and Counselling, Integrated Sciences, Library and Information as well as those in the Faculty of Education, including Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Business Education.

The vice chancellor said that all the programmes being run prior to the approval and introduction of the 29 new programmes in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and Science had full accreditation.

She added that the institution had commenced Master and Doctorate degree programmes in the School of Post-Graduate Studies and had advertised and admitted eligible candidates into the programmes for the 2019/2020 academic session.

Miri noted that the commencement of the post-graduate programmes was another milestone that would afford the institution the opportunity to live up to its tripartite functions of teaching, research and community development. The vice chancellor said that under her leadership, 118 teaching and non-teaching staff of the institution were sponsored to local and international conferences and workshops under the TETfund intervention.

“We are striving to increase and improve on the existing facilities and to equally lay emphasis on staff training and development so that the university will be able to cope with the increasing number of students,” she said.

The vice chancellor said that the university’s Health Services and Medical Centre, which was hitherto a three-bed clinic, had been expanded and remodelled to a 20-bed facility in order to meet the growing number of staff and students.

The university library, she further explained, had also built up its collection of books to 9,000 titles.

“We have equipped the library to the level that undergraduates, Masters and PhD students can carry out studies in diverse fields without much stress,” she said.

Nimi noted that in a bid to promote research and internationalisation, the institution had signed several memoranda of understanding within and outside the country, including one with the 150-year-old Morgan State University and another with NiMET.

He said that her leadership had maintained a stable academic calendar, cordial relationship with the immediate host communities and ensured timely promotion of eligible staff members, as priorities of the university’s management council.