UAES Holds Staff Advancement Retreat As VC Egbule Reels Out Achievements

By: Dr Alexander Onwumere and Dr Ugochukwu Iwuji, Owerri…

In line with his consistent knack with staff advancement and institutional excellence, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Umuagwo, Imo State, Prof Patrick Egbule, has held a vision advancement retreat for members of staff, both teaching and non-teaching.

The main purpose of the training held last Wednesday at the University Entrepreneurial Centre, according to the university chief is to “sensitize all staff on the mission, vision, and new directions for the university, especially as we commence the first academic semester of the second year of UAES as a budding university.”

The staff retreat afforded the Vice Chancellor, who has been acclaimed as hardworking and result-oriented, the opportunity to reel out his achievements in spite of the daunting task of planting a unique university like UAES. These milestones cut across massive infrastructural revolution, curriculum standardization, staff recruitment, modern agricultural development and utilization of massive hectares of land to plant high-yielding cassava varieties and pineapple suckers, as well as a deliberate periodic staff capacity-development programme, among others.

What, perhaps, may be the icing on the cake is the VC’s announcement of the university being enlisted on TETFund’s 2022 intervention projects, a move which would see the agency construct and equip a 500-seater auditorium, as well as intervene in the areas of ICT and library development. Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor has stated that a total of 42 members of staff had been listed as beneficiaries of the TETFund intervention programmes spanning across Academic Staff Training and Development (ASTD), Institutional Based Research and Conference Attendance, among others.

The Vice Chancellor also reminded staff that the UAES as a modern university is envisioned to provide excellent and conducive environment for teaching, learning, research and service that shall be deemed outstanding in all ramifications. He reiterated his BLISS agenda of Build, Lead, Innovate and Serve, a working vision that is anchored on the need to make position UAES as top-ranked world institution.

In a lecture entitled “Towards Global Competitiveness,” the guest speaker, Prof Apollos Nwauwa of the Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, charged academic staff of the university to distinguish themselves in the tripartite functions of an academic staff which include teaching, research and community service.In addition, he enjoined staff to assist in the provision of academic advisory to students as well as access learning outcome on what had been taught. He also asked staff to be part of the student admission drive of the university as it is done globally.

Meanwhile, a veteran university administrator and unionist, Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie has charged the internal members of the Governing Council of UAES to work in synergy with the Vice Chancellor for the smooth running of the cutting-edge institution. Prof Awuzie who is also the former Vice Chancellor of Imo State University made this charge at the second leg of the Staff Development Retreat which was held at the University Council Chambers. According to the University Don, the role of internal council members are not that of fault-finding and mindless criticism of the VC’s actions, adding that members are expected to cooperate with the Vice Chancellor to achieve targeted objectives. He also warned that internal bickering could expose the budding university to undue external aggression.

It will be recalled that the University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Umuagwo is a public University established by an act of Imo State Parliament Law No. 4 of 2019, amended in Law No. 7 of 2020 and officially gazetted as No. 20, Vol.44. The university is licensed by the National Universities Commission (NUC) as the 49th State University in Nigeria and the 171st in the federation in 2019, to run 29 programmes across five faculties of Agriculture, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Science and Computing and Arts, Management and Social Sciences.

Charged with the daunting task of founding the University from the scratch, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Patrick Ekezie Egbule, has been consistent in harnessing and deploying staff development initiatives, institutional collaborations, administrative finesse, ICT, technological innovation, global best practices and Quality Assurance templates to grow the budding university into a gracefully bourgeoning institution of excellence.