The Governor of Enugu State, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has commended the Governing Council, the management, staff and students of the state owned university, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), for keeping faith with their mandate, and ensuring that the institution’s flag continues to be high despite many odds.
The governor who is also the visitor to the university made this commendation at the 17th convocation ceremony of the institution in its Agbani Campus, recently. Stating that he had at the inauguration of the Governing Council in January 2016 charged the Council and the Management of ESUT, to deploy all their energies and competences to improve the fortunes of ESUT and take it to the desired pinnacle of intellectual and technological excellence.
“Today, we have come, not just to witness the 17th Convocation but also to celebrate the milestones that it has achieved in the recent times.” The Governor, who is also an Alumnus having obtained two Master’s Degree from ESUT, assured that “as a government and in line with our promises, we have continued to place a very high premium on the improvement of the quality and standard of education in Enugu State, and we have continued to develop and implement policies that are designed to reposition and revitalise educational institutions at all levels in the state. These include provision of critical infrastructure, renovation of existing facilities and the re-equipment of our schools so as to enable them compete favourably with their contemporaries and keep up with emerging realities and developments,” he added.
On the challenges facing the university as highlighted by the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Luke Anike, the governor assured that “apart from other interventions we have made and are still making in the school, we will continue to work in concert with relevant ministries and agencies of government to as far as available funds can permit to address these challenges adequately and satisfactorily.”
Stressing on the place of tertiary education as major tool for both human and technological development, he said, “I am convinced that tertiary institutions in the country have a critical role to play in this regard, especially if they would tailor and intensify their research activities, towards the development of new scientific capacities and technologies that would not only help to diversify our economy and create new jobs, but could also spur rapid growth in every sector. There is therefore no better time than now for ESUT and other institutions in the country, to rise up to the challenge.”
Earlier in his address, the Chancellor of the University, Dr. Alhaji Hassan Adamu (Wakili Adamawa) also commended the management staff of the university for the feat so far recorded and also called on the stakeholders to work assiduously to ensure the realisation and sustenance of the goals and aspirations of the institution’s founding fathers.
The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, most Rev (Prof.) Godfrey Igwebike Onah, in his 17th convocation address revealed that since they came on board, the governing council and management had taken steps to plug the existing loopholes, so as to promote quality scholarship and provide a congenial academic environment adding that, although most of these steps are expected to yield long-term fruits, some of their positive results are already being felt. Onah, who went historical on the record-breaking achievements of the Institution since its establishment 36 years ago as ASUTEC commended both federal and state governments for their continued support and encouragement while also calling for timely release of funds from government agencies to ensure that the intervention projects are expeditiously completed.
Earlier the University Vice-Chancellor , Prof. Luke Okechukwu Anike, revealed that aside from giving honours to the deserving 12,714 graduating students from nine Faculties spread across graduands from 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic sessions, the management of the university had taken some bold steps to ensure global visibility and excellent academic rating of ESUT.
According to VC, the feats were achieved through commitment to research, teaching and various approaches to staff development and sponsorship of the staff to national and international conferences, workshops and seminars adding that the development had significantly increased the level of ICT competency and productivity amongst staff and even students.
Commenting on the ESUT rating amongst state universities, Anike stressed that “it was heart-warming to know that our university, ESUT had assumed its rightful place as the first state university and the first university of technology in Nigeria and that due to the above humble effort and more, our university was ranked number one state university and number 17 university in the country in the recent web biometric survey rating of varsities based on quality of programmes and products.”
