Joel Williams Blog

The University of Ibadan Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday directed members of the union to begin full academic activities as from Thursday, Sept.21. The directive was given at a Congress of the Union held at the Faculty of Arts of the institution and presided over by the Chairman, Dr Deji Omole. Omole said that the development would formally be communicated to the Vice Chancellor, Prof.Idowu Olayinka. “ASUU has shown enough understanding with government. Our union should not be blamed if the Federal Government reneges on the signed Memorandum of Action (MoA),” he said. Omole called on the university management to ensure a conducive teaching, research and learning environment for the continuation of the concluding first semester examinations and commencement of the second semester of 2016/2017 session. “Members are to return to the classrooms, start supervision of students although on credit as well as commence attendance of s...

University of Michigan protests over the school's handling of racist acts of vandalism turned violent leading to one arrest after a fight broke out Wednesday night The violent protest saw properties destroyed on campus. The protest started around 7:30pm with around 150 students who were marching at the steps of  Union's Rogel Ballroom and meeting with University administrators including President Mark Schlissel and Chief Diversity Officer Robert Sellers. The meeting, which was scheduled to address students' dissatisfaction at the administrations failure to find and punish the people that wrote racist slurs on campus and on three black students doors, ended after about 30 minutes.

Dr. Ben Ugheoke, the chapter chairman told Vanguard in an interview in Abuja that the lecturers resumed work at the university. Recall that ASUU went on a nationwide strike on August 14 and called it off on September 18. Ugheoke assured students of lecturers’ preparedness to continue academic activities, as according to him, lecturers are the backbone of the studies that go on in the universities. “We make-up the most important labour group in the school even though we work under the university management, such is the duty of the lecturers and we are dedicated to it,” he said. He recalled that ASUU had conciliatory meetings with the Federal Government during which a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed; triggering a conditionally suspension of the union’s strike action. “Basically, our agitation borders on the Federal Government discharging its responsibilities in the education sector to the people, and if the government remains committed to do tha...

The University of Ilorin has for the fourth consecutive year maintained its status as the most subscribed university by admission seekers from 2014 to 2017. Prof. Musa Yusuf, the Director of the Computer Services and Information Technology Centre (COMSIT) , of the University, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Ilorin on Tuesday. He said that more than 104,000 candidates picked the University as their preferred institution. Yusuf, who is also the administrator of the post- Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) screening of the institution explained, that for the past four years, Unilorin has consistently emerged as  most subscribed University in Nigeria. He explained that out of the 104,000 candidates, 59,045 scored 180 and above in the UTME, qualifying them for the screening, which is the last stage of the admission process.

Suspected cult members have shot Mr. Stanley Mbanefo, a final year student of the Department of Geography, University of Uyo  Akwa Ibom State. The incident was said to have taken place at the university community of Idak Okpo, Uyo , around 10.47 pm on Monday. It was learnt that the hoodlums, about five in number, invaded the community and shot the victim at a close range while he was trying to escape from a shop. A witness, Chief Eno Clement, who is the chairman of Idap Okpo Community Development Association, said the assailants shot Mbanefo in the arm. He added that after the incident, some residents the community rushed the victim to a hospital in the area. He said, “They shot him in the arm and we rushed him to a hospital.” Another witness, Eno Sunday, said doctors at the hospital had been battling to extract pellets from the victim’s arm. She said Mbanefo was preparing for his national youth service in November before the attack . At the hospital, a do...

Nigerian students studying abroad are always in the news for academic excellence. They keep shining like stars as their academic brilliance shoots them to the world. One of such Nigerian academic ambassadors is Eugene C.X. Ikejemba, a 27-year-old Nigerian, who has sets fabulous records in a doctorate degree in the Netherlands. Eugene, who loves to be addressed as Xavier Iyke, recently emerged as the first PhD student to finish the program in less than three years at the University of Twente, Enschede. This compared to what obtains in many other universities around the world takes four to five years to complete a PhD program, but Xavier finished it in record time without funding from any source. The 27-year-old did not only finish the program like no one has ever done in the university, according to him, he is also the first PhD student to publish six articles in highly reputed scientific journals while the practice all over the world encourages students to publish two or three jour...

The police and some members of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps, LNSC, have arrested 11 secondary school students suspected to be cultists. The suspects were allegedly terrorising members of the public with dangerous weapons in the state. The Divisional Police Officer of Olosan Police Station, Adekunle Ominsakin, who confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday, said all the suspects belonged to the ”Gang Star’’ cult. Mr. Ominsakin said the suspects claimed to have been in existence since 2013 operating as students, stressing that they were between 17 years and 18 years old. “One student-suspect was brought to our station by LNSC on Friday. Our investigation led to the arrest of 10 other students, including a female student,” Mr. Omisankin said. The spokesperson for the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps, Adewale Afolabi, said that they had also arrested a JSS3 student, who was allegedly terrorising members of the public with dang...

Malaysian police have arrested seven suspects accused of intentionally starting a fire that killed 23 children and teachers at an Islamic school, an official said Saturday. The male suspects , aged 11 to 18, were detained late Friday to early Saturday close to the boarding school in Kuala Lumpur, said the capital’ s police chief Amar Singh. It is believed the suspects and the boys in the school had a disagreement , and those detained started the fire at the top-floor dormitory early Thursday using gas canisters , he said. “ There was teasing between this group and the religious school students,” Singh told a press conference, without giving further details . He said the suspects “intention was to cause a fire ” ,adding they could face murder charges. Six of the seven suspects had tested positive for using marijuana , he said. The fire the country’s worst for two decades killed 21 schoolboys, aged six to 16, and two teachers.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai led administration has declared the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, as illegal. The government also said that it will not pay for days lecturers of the state owned university did not work. El-Rufai’s spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, in a statement lamented the ongoing action, noting that there was no dispute between the government and the striking lecturers. “The Kaduna State Government is in receipt of communication from the Kaduna State University, KASU branch of ASUU, confirming that the branch has joined the nationwide strike because they are full members of the national union”, he said. “This is unacceptable to the state government. It is an anomaly that employees can be on strike without declaring a dispute with their employer. “It bears restating that Nigeria is a federation of states, and no trade union can alter this federal reality by imposing on an employer state government the terms that federal em...

50 per cent of teachers in Kaduna State penned down for re-appointment as teachers, failed primary 4 test set for them as pre-condition for re-absorption into the civil service, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has revealed. The governor also disclosed that students who were sent on overseas study were being withdrawn due to poor academic performance. El Rufai disclosed this when chiefs and traditional rulers from Southern Kaduna paid him a courtesy call on Tuesday. He expressed shocks over what he described as “shameful performance of the students because their academic performance in secondary schools back home were convincing enough that they would do better outside Nigeria.” “This is a clear demonstration of the government’s effort towards improving teachers capacity for effective teaching and learning in public schools,” said El-Rufai said.

The University of Lagos has postponed its 2017 post-UTME screening exam earlier scheduled to start on September 18. The university’s Registrar, Taiwo Ipaye, confirmed the postponement it in a statement on the university’s website. The registrar said a new date will be announced later.

The Igbonla Model College kidnap might be a thing in the past but the aftermath effect is being felt. As reported some months back, the six rescued students were in stable conditions but two of them have failed to resume. The turn-up of student for the new academic session was also low.

An Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, has reportedly escaped from the hands of her captors. The student, Oluwaseun Mary Olaniyan who was abducted, escaped 11 days after her abduction. Olaniyan was kidnapped alongside Twp other students, Oladepo Blessing and Oluwasemilore Mary. The other two students were found dead days later. Olaniyan narrated that she was abducted just outside the school gate after boarding a taxi. She said, “I boarded the taxi cab alongside a lady at the same location. "Two of them were going to Yaba in Ondo city. As soon as I boarded the vehicle, I became unconscious. I later found myself in a building located inside a thick forest. "We were six in the hands of the captors who fed us only with water. We saw strange men coming in a jeep vehicle to collect something we suspected to be human flesh which was concealed in a cellophane bag. "My escape from the hands of the kidnappers was divine. It was while they were quarrelling that I took the o...

The three non-academic staff unions in public universities namely the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, NASU; and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, have declared an indefinite strike starting on Monday, September 11th. This development comes two weeks after ASUU declared its indefinite strike. Chairman of Joint Action Committee of the associations who doubles as the President of SSANU, Samson Ugwoke, announced the commencement of the strike action at a press conference in Abuja today September 6th. “During the strike, there shall be no provision of services, no matter how skeletal. Concessions shall not be granted while all our members are to stay at home till further notice, unless as directed by JAC through their respective presidents,” he said. The 10 issues in contention are non-payment of earned allowance, lack of good governance, poor funding as against UNESCO recommendation, i...

Reporta has it that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, will on Thursday hold a crucial meeting with the federal government. Thursday’s meeting, if held, will be exactly a week since the lecturers refused to show up for a meeting with the government delegation saying such meeting was “unnecessary.” Persons expected to be at Thursday’s meeting are the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu. The President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, confirmed Thursday’s meeting to PREMIUM TIMES. “We just received the notification of the meeting,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning. “Until Thursday, that is when we can say what would happen but we have been invited for the meeting.”

2017/2018 POST-UTME SCREENING   The University of Port Harcourt hereby invites candidates who chose the University as First and/or Second choice in the 2017 Unified Matriculation Examination (UTME) and obtained a minimum score of 180, to apply for Screening Exercise for admission into the University. The University shall not admit candidates into Geology in the 2017/2018 session.  Candidates who chose Geology as their programme of study are hereby informed that they could be admitted into other/related areas of study, subject to acceptable performance.  They are to contact JAMB for change of course or change of Institution for admission into Geology.  The Schedule of the Screening Exercise is as indicated below: DAY/DATE OF EXERCISE                                       ...

The Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State has overlooked the orders as it set 170 as the cut-off mark for the 2017/2018 admission into the institution, against the minimum 120 set by JAMB. Malam Umar Usman, the varsity's Information Officer made this known in Gusau on Saturday saying: “If we will stick to the 120 minimum cut off marks given by JAMB, a majority of applicants who are going to attend the University’s aptitude test for the admission will not get it. “We decided to minimize the difficulty by raising our points to 170 so that most of those that will pay for Post UTME in the university will get the admission,” he said. He noted that the university also runs Pre-degree programme in Science, Art and Social Science with candidates who would also be considered for admission to make up for 1, 500 students required for the session. NAN

The management of the University of Ibadan, and its academic union, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU have condemned and rejected the new cut-off marks for universities admission for 2017/2018 academic calendar. This position was contained in a statement titled, “On the Recently Announced cut off Marks of 120 for University Admission: our position in UI”, released from the Office of the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka. The statement declared, “The Management of the University of Ibadan wishes to inform the public about the recently announced cut off marks of 120 for University Admission that UI will not lower her standards” , adding, “the Nigeria’s premier university still maintains her position in academic excellence and standards in order to continue to aspire towards becoming a world-class university”. The statement reads, “It should worry us as patriots that candidates who scored just 30 pe...

It is very sad to find out no Nigerian tertiary institutions were not included in the 2017 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The list of the best 800 in the world failed to have many African representations, with Asia, Europe and North America maintaining dominance. From the African continent, South Africa had the highest number (eight) of institutions on the list. They are; University of Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of Johannesburg and University of KwaZulu-Natal, North-West University, University of South Africa, and the University of Pretoria. Harvard and Stanford remain as the top two universities in the world, according to the ARWU study. See the firts hundred below:

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