Ruth Oginyi
The vice chancellor Coal City University, Enugu, southeast Nigeria, Professor Afam Icha-Ituma, on Saturday, reaffirmed the university’s zero-tolerance to all forms of antisocial behaviour such as drugs, violence, examination malpractice, and racketeering.
This was contained in his address of welcome during the 5th Matriculation Ceremony of the University held in Enugu.
The vice chancellor pointed out that 201 students were being admitted into the university’s three faculties. The students scaled the stringent admissions requirements of the university, including the, now famous, rigorous 3-step admission process – meeting all academic requirements, student high personal motivation to study the self-chosen course and a maximum of 30 students per class to maintain its traditional small class sizes for effective teaching and learning.
He noted that the distinctive admission process enabled the university to get an uncommon mix of students from across nigeria who enrolled in various, programs in the faculty of natural and applied sciences; faculty of arts, social and management sciences; and faculty of education. He congratulated the new students for obtaining admission into Coal City University, a globally focused and fast-rising private university in Nigeria.
Professor Icha-Ituma further pointed out that CCU is a special place in lots of ways. He noted that since the take-off of CCU in 2016, the university has maintained a stable academic calendar and has adopted blended learning pedagogy which involves delivering lectures face-face and online.
“CCU is among the few universities in Nigeria that have robust information and communication technology capabilities. The University delivered lectures in real-time and on a university-wide scale during the pandemic lockdown of the year 2020. This feat effectively ensured that our students progressed appropriately and graduated timely”, the VC asserted.
He charged the students not to focus on memorising extant knowledge to pass examinations, rather they should prioritize thinking through problems, all-around skills development, and knowledge acquisition for self-actualization. He further informed the new students that they will have access to the excellent learning and research facilities in the university. This is in addition to over 60 world-class scholars trained in top universities in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia who were recently engaged by CCU as full-time/visiting scholars, to enrich students’ learning experience and produce global citizens.
As part of Coal City University’s internationalisation programme, the VC stated that the university has signed an MoU with Delaware State University (USA) for an international pathway programme to enable CCU students spend two years in Nigeria and then two years in Delaware State University to earn two degrees from both in the programme, in four years.
Icha-Ituma further stated that the university had zero-tolerance for indiscipline, truancy, examination malpractice, and cultism. He assured the matriculants that they were at the right place for stellar education. He informed the excited listeners that all Coal City University’s courses are designed in line with global standards and to address specific national challenges. He urged the students to attend lectures regularly and punctually, revealing that 75 percent lea lecture attendance is the minimum prerequisite to writing examinations in the university.
Speaking also at the event, the governor of Enugu state, who was represented by the executive secretary, Enugu State Scholarship and Education Loans Board, Barr Levi Agbom urged students to work hard to maximise opportunities in the Board and access their scholarships and loans to meet their educational needs. He further praised the management and staff of the university for the great work they were doing in Enugu state and urged them to do more towards raising the educational level in the country as a whole.
The pro-chancellor of the university, Professor Chinedu Nebo, advised the matriculants to live up to the ethos of the university by being good ambassadors of the university. Nebo, who was once Minister of Power and erstwhile vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Federal University, Oye Ekiti, lauded the university as being one of the few universities in the country that can guarantee its students an 0uninterrupted academic calendar and timely graduation. He urged the new students to remain focused, hard-working, and prayerful to excel.
While delivering the matriculation lecture entitled Building the Foundation for Greatness and Impact, Professor Bell Chua, executive director African Polling Institute, Abuja, admonished the students to work hard, create contact and expand their network because the net worth of an individual is directly proportional to his or her network. The event featured the presentation of awards and prizes to the best performing students in the last academic year. To motivate the students, Coal City University publicly crowns the best-performing students as university ambassadors for a session.