From left, librarian, Edo University, Iyamho, Mr. Abdulrahman Garuba; registrar, Dr. (Mrs.) Isoken Ogboro; vice chancellor, Professor Emmanuel Aluyor; deputy vice chancellor, Professor Stephen Omodia, and bursar, Mr. Christopher Okhani, during the fifth matriculation ceremony of the university at the weekend.
The world class teaching and learning facilities available in the Edo University, Iyamho, came into focus on Saturday as the university matriculated its fifth set of 503 students.
The vice chancellor, Professor Emmanuel Aluyor, took time to reel out the series of innovations that have been introduced lately to make the university a work class institution.
This much was also attested to last year by the first chancellor of the institution, Dr. Aderemi Makanjuola, at his installation, Nigerian Tribune recalls.
Dr Makanjuola, chairman of Caverton Offshore Support Group, had said in November last year that he accepted Governor Godwin Obaseki’s offer to be the pioneer chancellor of the university because he was convinced Edo State was on the cusp of redefining education in Nigeria.
He said: “I learnt about this university and its uniqueness through friends and associates who told me that Edo University, Iyamho, is the Harvard, Cambridge and IMT of our time.
“I was not in doubt of this claim because I know that great things are usually found in the heart, as [Edo State is the] Heartbeat of the Nation.
“I see Edo State redefining education in Nigeria. It is with this sense that I accepted the offer from His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, to be the first chancellor of this great institution of higher learning.
“I must commend the founding fathers of the university for their foresight in establishing a university that competes favourably with Ivy League universities like Cambridge and Harvard. I must say that facilities here are among the best in the world.”
Edo University, a state government-owned tertiary institution was founded in 2016 and located in Iyamho, a town in Etsako West local government area of Edo State.
To achieve the purpose for which it was set up, the institution’s management under the leadership of Professor Emmanuel Aluyor, a professor of engineering, has been introducing several innovations to make it a world class institution.
These include the use of CANVAS LMS/AIS and smart/electronic boards for effective teaching and learning delivery.
The university became the first in West Africa to acquire the CANVAS Learning Management System (LMS) and now the Academic Information System (AIS) to deliver the highest possible quality education available to students.
The university’s authorities also give regular training to staff, both teaching and non-teaching, to enable them make effective use of the modern facilities available.
“The training, which is a continuous exercise, is to ensure that we can get the maximum benefits from these facilities that we have acquired for use in the university.
“We already have a requirement that all our academic staff should be computer-literate; but being computer-literate is not enough to be able to use a smart board and other modern teaching and learning tools, hence the training,” the vice chancellor said in his address.
Aluyor said the quest for members of staff to go beyond their comfort zone and to enable them contribute meaningfully to the development of the university was the driving force behind the training and acquisition of the state-of-the-art teaching and learning aids.
He said the university has no place for gangsterism, cultism and other social vices as doing so will attract summary expulsion from the school.
Professor Aluyor also warned matriculates against smoking, hard drugs and other acts of indiscipline, while advising them to make the best use of the facilities provided to enhance their learning.
“In addition to the technologically enhanced teaching, the university has adopted the competence-based curriculum in medicine, and recently, the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) learning system for the Faculty of Engineering,” he added.
Other facilities, he said, include a world class Mass Communication studio, legal clinic for Law students, smart boards, and temperature-controlled classrooms with multimedia projectors.