The University of Jos has secured funding approval from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for 43 Institutionalized Based Researches (IBR), and 13 manuscripts for publication into books.
This was disclosed by the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the institution while giving an account of his 2 year stewardship as the 10th substantive VC to newsmen Thursday, at the University’s Permanent Site.
The VC said he has prioritized collaborations, partnerships and networking with external bodies and the university has also been able to win a N250 million Naira grant from the Abdul Samad Rabiu (ASR) Africa Initiative, under the Africa Tertiary Education Grants Scheme which is part of ASR Africa’s intervention towards undertaking infrastructure projects in universities and institutions of Higher learning across Nigeria.
The VC also stated that the Institution has reduced the challenges faced in the area of medical tourism by installing and handing over a Urology, Organ Transplant and Dialysis equipment worth N1bn Naira to the Jos University Teaching Hospital as its Tissue Laboratory.
According to him: “It is our desire to mainstream excellence and alleviate some of the challenges we are confronted with when we engage in medical tourism as we seek for medical attention for various aliments.
“The installed equipment is meant to facilitate the treatment of ailments affecting the kidneys, ureter, bladder, male prostate, male and female reproductive organs and other non-communicable diseases”
He commended the Federal Government for providing health intervention through TETFund. He pointed out that “The project was undertaken primarily to ease the predicament many of us face when seeking medical attention for Urological and other diseases in foreign countries”
Appreciating the National Universities Commission (NUC) , government and non-government actors for supporting the institution achieve its set objectives, the VC said the university has recorded many gains by executing about 33 projects fully completed or at different stages of completion, funded through interventions and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
While promising to build a collegial university for excellence for national and global impact, the VC listed mainstreaming Information Communication Technology (ICT in the university, rejuvenation of Alumni relations, hosting the 27th Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) games, ensuring staff and students welfare, among the gains recorded. But equally hinted that the journey so far has also come with many challenges which need to be addressed to make the institution better positioned to achieve its mandate as one of the best in the country.
“To motivate our workforce, we have Institutionalized the maiden edition of the Vice Chancellors Annual Anniversary Awards. To ameliorate the plight and suffering caused by hike on transportation due to subsidy removal, buses are stationed on ground to transport staff and students to school, while a committee has been set to look into awarding scholarships to indigent students, and look for ways students can earn an income while studying”
He listed some of the challenges faced by the university to include: paucity of funds, absence of the governing council to handle policy issues, precarious security situation around the university and the porosity of borders, land encroachment on borders, lack of budgetary allocation for recruitment for well over 5 years, and inability to complete a parameter fence around the university despite securing a TETFund grant for the project.
On tackling insecurity, Ishaya said the institution has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to get support for building a Police outpost which has been approved. He added that “We are busy creating a database to know the statistics of students residing outside the school premises so that they can assess interventions where necessary”
But regarding its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the VC disclosed that the institution, through the advancement office, has recently held a meeting with the host community to cement ties and build a good relationship.
He also disclosed that the university is understaff, due to inability to replace those that died for the past two years and this has made the workload and stress on the remaining staff too much, leading to health challenges. “We are also losing staff who are relocating to look for greener pastures”
“Over 20 academic staff were lost in the past 2 years aside the non academic, and the important message is we have lost staff, they have not been able to be replaced, and they offer professional services. So it is indeed a great challenge to us”
Lamenting the high cost of running the institution, he disclosed that the university has a budget of about N13 million Naira monthly to run the entire university but that is not what is being released. “The bill for running the university electricity alone is N30 million Naira monthly, and what students are billed is just charges to provide them with services”
He used the opportunity to commend President Bola Tinubu for reversing the 40 percent IGR remittance policy that mandates tertiary institutions to remit 40 percent of their IGR’s to the Federal Government.
While rating graduates emanating from his university high, the VC expressed confidence that they are able to represent the university and present themselves well to the world.
Prof. Ishaya however promised that despite the backlash of COVID-19 and the harsh economy, his leadership will continue to operate with transparency, accountability and integrity in line with the university’s act and statutes.
