The authorities of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria on Tuesday said they had established no fewer than five new engineering departments toward attaining and maintaining excellence.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, made the disclosure at a Knowledge Sharing workshop at the ABU main campus, Samaru, Zaria, Kaduna State.
The lecture with a theme: “Towards Excellence Engineering Training and Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa” was organised by Higher Education Partnership in Sub-Saharan Africa (HEPSSA).
Garba, represented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Prof. Kabir Bala, recalled that ABU was the first university in Nigeria to establish a full pledged faculty of engineering.
“This faculty has been growing from strength to strength such that we now have about 15 departments or programmes at undergraduate levels and quite a large number at specialisation level that is Postgraduate level.
“It is in line with tradition of ABU in taking the lead, especially in Northern Nigeria and mentoring other younger institutions for them to emulate.
” It is in line with this tradition that in the recent past, we established about five new departments of engineering.
“They are; Mechatronics Engineering, Mining Engineering, Communication Engineering, Computer Engineering and Automotive Engineering,” he said.
Garba said the essence was in keeping with global development and blazing the trail for others to follow as well as in pursuance of excellence.
With this development, he said, the university had been trying within its limited resources and also in partnership with other friends of the university to provide the required facilities in best possible manner.
He lauded the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for building and equipping the university’s multi-user laboratory at the faculty of engineering.
The vice-chancellor expressed optimism that the recent partnership between the university and the NNPC would yield fruitful results and would aid teaching and learning process in the institution.
In an address of welcome, the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Mohammed Dauda, said the focus of the workshop was on automotive engineering curriculum development with industries collaboration.
“The industry-academia collaboration is very little in Nigeria, this collaboration is necessary, especially in engineering, because engineering is a subject that has global focus.
“All over the world, that is a topic that is always debated or spoken while in the western world they have really leveraged on the collaboration.
‘’However in Nigeria, the benefit is actually very little,” he said.
Dauda said the workshop was to bring out the issues to the front burner, to engender debate, discussion and deliberation toward finding solutions to problems. (NAN)
