The Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has applauded the leadership of the state-owned Niger Delta University, NDU, on its achievements.
This include securing full accreditation for ten of its academic programmes, following the release of N200 million by the state government for the purpose.
Governor Dickson stated this when the Acting Vice Chancellor of NDU, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo presented the 2017 May/June National University Commission, NUC, accreditation report at the Executive Council Chambers of Government House, Yenagoa.
While assuring NDU of government’s support to achieve academic excellence, the governor directed Edoumiekumo to liaise with the state Ministry of Education for the approval of the balance of N21 million out of the N221 earlier approved for the institution.
His words: “This government will spare no effort and resources in working with the university team in ensuring that NDU becomes one of the best universities in the country.”
Governor Dickson, urged Bayelsa students seeking admission into universities to consider NDU, describing it as a first class tertiary institution, which had the full backing of the state government.
Presenting the report, Edoumiekumo said it was the first time in the history of the NDU that it had achieved such a feat in the accreditation of its programmes.
He listed Law, Medical Laboratory Science and Mechanical Engineering as some of the programmes that were accredited.
He, however, noted that accreditation was denied for Pure and Applied Chemistry, Computer Science and Mathematics due to lack of qualified staff.
Edoumiekumo also said the university had already written to the NUC to make inputs in the area of qualified staff to fill the existing vacancies and gave a breakdown of the expenditure of the N200m.
In an interview, the acting vice chancellor said, as against the general 120 cut-off mark for universities, the NDU had pegged 150 as its cut-off.
He added that the move was aimed at raising NDU’s educational standard and competitiveness.
