…as FUOYE announces new admission opportunities
By Wole Balogun
S.A Media to VC
Dr. Omolade Adeleke is new Director of the Centre for Continuing Education of the upwardly mobile Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE). The centre manages FUOYE’s Institute of Part Time Studies (IPTS) and Distance Learning (D.L). Through the centre, FUOYE has greatly fulfilled one of its core mandates as a federal educational institution, community services, by having its presence in five adjourning communities along the Oye-Ikole axis. The communities in chronological order are Ifaki-Ekiti, Ayegbaji-Ekiti, Ire-Ekiti, Ikole-Ekiti and Ayedun-Ekiti.
According to Dr. Adeleke, meaningful development, numerous job opportunities and admission opportunities have been created by the Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina’s administration with the Centre for Continuing education through its IPTS.
In this chat with Wole Balogun of the University Media Team (UMT) the Director of FUOYE’s Centre for Continuing Education, revealed other laudable achievements of the Vice-Chancellor in two years of his five-year tenure as the institution prepares for its 7th Convocation ceremony which kicks off February 6. Excerpts:
UMT: By February 11, 2023, it will be two years that Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina assumed office as the fourth substantive Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE, what is your impression about his performance so far?
Dr. Adeleke: The administration of Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina started on a good note and one of the vibrant achievements the Fasina administration has made is to kick start the lnstitite of Part Time Studies (IPTS) immediately he came on board in 2021.
The institute has been his brain child and he shared his visions on it, so the successes witnessed today in the institute is a product of a well-thought-out mission and when you have a visionary leader like Prof. Abayomi Fasina, you would always want to do more. And we are ready to replicate the same success in the new mission, the Centre for Continuing Education for which l have been appointed as the pioneer Director.
UMT: So, what has been the achievements recorded in IPTS which you are planning to replicate in the new Centre?
Dr. Adeleke: Thanks to our amiable VC who deemed it fit that with our impressive performance in IPTS, we should be able to replicate same in the centre which we are pioneering and this centre now, we will be managing both the Distance Learning lnstitute and the lnstitute of Part Time studies. I am most grateful to the VC for this appointment. One of the hallmarks of the VC is his love for the communities in Ekiti, especially those adjourning towns to Oye-Ekiti where the University’s main campus is located. He has passion for developing people and communities and derives joy in building people and careers, and expanding the scope of development behind Oye-Ekiti. That has been his watchword and that is why you can see the institute of part time studies moving from one town to another.
Currently, we are in five towns, we have part of our faculty of agriculture namely departments of Food Science & Technology and Plant ad Animal Production in Ayedun-Ekiti, the rest of the faculty of agriculture and the Tourism and hotel management that has just been approved are all in Ikole campus. Ire-Ekiti has Computer Science , Mass Communication and Library and Information Science . While Ayegbaju is the home of all faculties of Social Sciences, Management Studies and Arts. Ayegbaju is the headquarters of our institute of part time studies. The fifth campus is springing up now in Ifaki as work is currently on going there. That is where we are having the post graduate arm of the institute of part time studies, where we shall be having MBA, Masters in public administration, Accounting and others which we are already admitting students for.
Now what is the motive behind planting of all these campuses? One, Prof. Abayomi Fasina deemed it fit not only to impact on Oye-Ekiti but also the adjourning towns , l have said that before, two, he believes that since government cannot do this alone, we should find a means of bringing in the communities to participate in the development of our education sector. Three, the VC believes that bringing in towns will further create job opportunities for people around these areas. Four, the initiative will provide additional admission opportunities for students . For your information, we have over 50,000 applicants for the last jamb who applied for FUOYE alone. Those applicants picked FUOYE as their first choice and as you know, the qouta of the University is less than 8,000. So, that means over 40,000 prospective students will be roaming about looking for admissions and waiting for another jamb. And that is the idea behind part time, as we are spreading, there are opportunities for us to accommodate prospective students that are unable to secure admissions through Jamb. So, with these four points, you would see that the idea behind part time institute is well thought of.
UMT: How have the host communities embraced this gesture of community services by the Prof. Fasina led administration sir?
Dr. Adeleke: Let me tell you what we have achieved in this effort with the support from Prof. Fasina. One, let me start with Ire-Ekiti, it was a town that wasn’t noticed before as there was no robust social activities that can put the town on the global map in terms of education, but now if you enter the town, the first sign board you will see is that of our institute of part time studies, and the cooperation of the community has been enormous. They erected buildings for our campus there, and furnished it themselves. They even bought the power generating set for us in the campus. Of recent, one of the illustrious sons of the town, Aare Akomolafe Adebayo, came into the limelight and after a few discussions with the institute of part time studies, he pledged his commitment to the cause of the part time programmes, and l want to tell you that today, the man has made tremendous contribution to the development of the institute, first, he donated an 18-Seater bus which is well over N10 million, two, he donated another N5 million to equip our computer laboratory. We want Computer Science to start and be domiciled in Ire-Ekiti and now we have over 50 Computer systems to have a befitting computer laboratory in Ire-Ekiti.
18 seater bus well above 10 milon, 50 computers .
And again, as if that was not enough, this man has plegded to build a standard CBT centre for us in the Ire-Ekiti campus. and that CBT centre is worth over N60 million. It is a jamb CBT centre where we would have about 300 computer systems in it and it will be with all network accessories provided and then server will be built from the scratch. Then again, another illustrious son of that town has given us a whole building which he was using as public library before, that is Chief Femi Ajayi . There is a public library in Ire-Ekiti called Juliana Ajayi public library, it has now been gifted to the FUOYE institute of part time studies. And all documents have been handed over to us. We have renovated the building to house the computer laboratory for now.
Ire-Ekiti has been so cooperating and if you go to the town now, there is a beehive of activities . Students of Mass Communication are there, so also students of Library and Information Science are there and in the next few months, they will be receiving students of Computer Science there also. We bless God for their cooperation.
For Ikole-Ekiti, they have been phenomenal. I want to tell you that the Ikole Development Union has single-handedly built a campus for us. When l say a campus, l mean what you can call an ideal mini-campus has been built for us by the Ikole Development Union, and it is powered by Barrister Kayode Filani. He single-handedly built the campus in the name of the community’s union. He is a native and illustrious son of Ikole-Ekiti. Currently, we have about six buildings built from the scratch by him on about 20 plots of land, which he has donated to the institute of part time studies. Currently, we have about four classrooms there, each with 300 seats for students. The buildings are well furnished, painted and powered. There are also boreholes dug to bring adequate supply of water. And we have two buildings under construction there. The adjourning roads to that campus have been cleared so that they can be motorable and the place can be assessible.
Now, we have our mini campus for the institute over there. The VC will be commissioning all these projects during the coming Convocation ceremony. The VC will also be supervising the foundation laying ceremony of the CBT centre being built for us by Aare Akomolafe in Ire-Ekiti, so also will he commission the new bus donated to us . So, we have an array of achievements and these are just to say a few. In Ayedun- Ekiti, in their little way, they have contributed to the growth of our campus in their community. So, as we bless God, all these great achievements were possible because of the encouragement given to us by the VC to the leadership of part time studies to engage the communities where our presence have been established in developing the education sector . And in the long run, the glory is coming back to the towns as their commercial activities and economic development are improving. Now, all these acheivements are products of hard work, steadfastness and idea generations and discussions. We thank God for the encouragement from our Vice-Chancellor and we are ready to bring to bear the same energy to build the Centre for Continuing education, particularly the Distance Learning institute that we are starting already. We will take the centre to greater heights. It shall become one of the centres of excellence in Nigeria. We want to really appreciate our Vice-Chancellor for his immense support given to the leadership.
