From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja (UniAbuja), Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, disclosed on Thursday, that he inherited UniAbuja some two years ago with no proper academic record of students neither was there accurate number of students in the school.
Prof. Na’Allah told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, to mark his two years in office as the Vice Chancellor, that such inaccuracies in date made him to championed the development and deployment of integrated portal that made it possible for the school management to have accurate academic records of students, as well as other social and academic activities.
He said: “The integrated portal was one of the achievements that I am so proud of. Before the integrated portal system, we didn’t even know the number of students we have in the school neither did we have their records. We could not confidently tell how many students we have.
“But now, if you come to me every semester and demand for such information, I will gladly and confidently provide the information as regards the number of students we have in the school, their faculties and other academic details. The integrated portal made it possible.
“Students now register for their courses and do other things seamless in the portal without any human interaction. Another advantage is that the students will have their academic records intact and accessible to them any time using their unique access password. Request for transcripts can also be submitted in the portal and it will be sent to any location in the world.”
Meanwhile, with increasing cases of attacks in schools by bandits, the Vice Chancellor assured students and parents that UniAbuja campuses are safe and not vulnerable to bandits attacks.
He said: “Security is one of our key priority. Obviously, increasing attacks on schools and general insecurity has become a big threat to education. Some schools in some parts of Nigeria have closed due to fear of attacks. For us in UniAbuja, we are safe and had taken measures to protect our school community.
“We are in the midst of fencing our school premises and huge financial resources has gone into it. We have spent close to a billion naira in the fencing project and we have not finished. Few days ago, we received payment of N60 million from appropriation for the continuation of work on the fencing project.
“Howbeit, there are other measures we have taken to strengthen security in the school, which we cannot disclose to the public. So, parents should not be afraid as we are doing everything humanly possible to ensure better security in our school.”
He, however, warned students against hostel racketeering, threatening to severely punish any student or staff caught in the act.
He said: “We have the history of students subleting their hostel rooms at higher price. We have, therefore, positioned our systems to arrest such students. We have proved to students more than once that we have zero tolerance for indiscipline and every student who dares us will have himself or herself to blame.
“However, we have reformed the hostel allocation system to the point that at a touch of a bottom in my office, I get the record of every student in the hostel including their photograph. We have regulations now that no students is allowed to sublet his or her hostel room. Surrender the rooms to the University if you can’t use it.”