The National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved five new academic programmes for study at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Charles Okechukwu Esimone, who disclosed this in Awka, Monday, while speaking at March 2022 congress organised by the Anambra State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), revealed that the new programmes were spread across disciplines in the institution’s undergraduate studies and postgraduate programmes.
According to him, NUC gave the approval after a resource assessment visits to the citadel of learning, and they include Doctor of Pharmacy, (Pharm.D); Agricultural Education, B.Agric (Ed); Home Economics Education, B. Sc (Ed); Petroleum Engineering, B.Eng; and Human Nutrition and Dietetics, B. Sc.
He said the programmes would take off from 2021/2022 academic session, adding that Supply Chain and Logistics Management in the faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Migration Studies and Integrated Water Resources Management in the faculty of Physical Sciences were deemed fit into the Masters Degree programmes of the College of Post Graduate Studies in response to the need of society.
Esimone, who further disclosed that the Pharmacy Department of the Medical Center have been licensed to train interns, having received full accreditation of the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria, added that the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) had designated the University’s Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Management as a centre of excellence for training of fifisheries experts in the country.
Esimone named some of his achievements as a Vice Chancellor to include raising the institution’s national and international profile through Memoranda of Understanding signed with national and international institutions, resuscitation of the University Senate’s research grant, remodeling of their inaugural lectures to virtual monthly sessions, propelling staff and students to access research grants, and publish in selected high impact journals in various disciplines.
