Bunmi Olarewaju
The Vice Chancellor of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Professor Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole has announced that as from next session, the university would decentralise as part of the efforts to make it more efficient and effective.
Prof. Ogunwole who dropped this hint at Ikole Campus of the university during his familiarisation tour of Departments and Faculties Ogunwole stressed that power will be devolved to units.
According to the VC, “The University will be stratified into schools and there will be about five of such schools. Each of which will be headed by a Provost. Seventeen Faculties as we currently have will be compressed into five schools including school of Agriculture, Engineering and Environmental Design (SAED), School of Arts, Social and Management Sciences, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, School of Science (SOS) and School of Education, Communication and Multidisciplinary Studies.
His words, “At the helm of School of Agriculture, Engineering and Environmental Design (SAED) for instance, will be a Provost who will be in charge of research and administration. There will also be Deans of various Faculties making up the Schools”
“Schools will be given targets, they will have projects to be delivered to the University and where we see that you cannot deliver, we change the headship”, he added.
According to Prof Ogunwole “Management has decided that Electrical Engineering is moving to the faculty of Computing and Information Engineering because there cannot be information without electrical engineering, where will the information come from. in the same vein, Mechatronics will move Computer and Information Engineering. And the space that will be created as a result of these movements will be used for Mining engineering”, he stressed.
Prof. Ogunwole also said, “The Dean of Computing and Information must create rooms to accommodate these departments because we are anxious to start Mining Engineering”, pointing out that all the documents of this University bears Agriculture and Mining engineering.
After fifteen years is when we are set to start Mining, yet, the whole of Ekiti state is full of Rocks”
The Vice Chancellor maintained that “Provosts must pursue research, innovation and interfaculty vigorously. Interdisciplinary research must be promoted by the Provosts”
According to him, “Therefore, the Provosts we will be appointing must have been Dean of Faculty and Academic Directors previously. Innovation path is what we will also pursue vigorously, every faculty must have an innovation path. The office of the Vice Chancellor will write letters to Faculties requesting for their innovation path as a faculty”
He assured that Provosts will sit over research and there will be the introduction of the School system to replace the collegiate system with a call for unity and shared responsibility, urging all Faculties and staff in the University to prioritize collective progress and work towards building a lasting legacy of sustainable development.
Dignitaries in attendance included Head of Campus, Professor Ayodele Fajimi, Dean of Deans Professor Babatope Alabadan, former Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor Olubunmi Shittu, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Professor Matthew Olaniyan, Dean Faculty of Environmental Science, Professor Albert Adeboye, Acting Dean, Faculty of Computing Engineering, Dr. Adebowale Sobowale, Director of Administration, Vice Chancellor Office, Mrs Oyeyemika Koyejo Fasakin, Director of Public Affairs and Communication Dr. Sunday Saanu among others.
Photo Credit: Nifesimi Ogungbe
