The acting Vice-Chancellor of Kaduna State University, KASU, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa says the institution will reopen on July 13, to enable its final year students to write their examinations and graduate.
Mr Ashafa, who stated this in an interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna on Friday, added that the state government plans to
provide foreign scholarships to students with outstanding Cumulative Grade
Point Average, CGPA.
He said that the students, in substantial numbers, upon
graduation, would be sent abroad for their masters’ degree.
The VC added that the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans
Board had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two African
universities, where the students would be admitted.
He said that the admission processes would be closed in
September and the students had not written their second semester examination
because of the protracted industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU).
“As parents, we thought that we should fast track the
resumption process so that the students can write their examinations, obtain
their results, and submit to the scholarship board to process their
admissions,” he said.
He said that the school management have resolved, after a
meeting with critical managers of the university, to reopen on July 13, with
the second semester examination scheduled to commence July 25.
The VC explained that critical managers of the university,
which include Deans and HODs shoulder the affairs of teaching and research in
the university.
“The Deans and HODs are the critical managers of the
university whose subordinates will have to be engaged to conduct the
examination, supervise, and process the results.
“It is on this basis we are confident that we will be able
to convince the state government to pay staff salaries that have been
withheld,” he said.
He appealed to the leadership of ASUU, KASU branch, to
understand with the university for the sake of the students, so that they can
graduate and benefit from the available opportunity for foreign scholarships.
Mr Ashafa recalled that the previous management of the
university had attempted a dialogue with the leadership of the university’s
chapter of ASUU but yielded no result because of the frosty relationship.
He revealed that the current management had directed that
the query issues to some executive members of the union should be withdrawn.
The VC, on behalf of the management and the university
Senate, apologised to the leadership of ASUU over the incident.
He also called on the students to return to school and
continue with their studies, adding that no students would be prevented from
writing examinations on account of failure to pay school fees.
The VC explained that after the increase in school fees in
2021, only about 25 per cent of the students made full payment, while some made
part payment and others could not pay anything.
“We will not stop any student from writing the examination,
even if the person has not paid the school fees.
“What we will do is that the affected students will not see
their results and will not be allowed to register for the next academic
session.
“However, the Executive Secretary of State Scholarship and
Loans Board, Mr Rilwan Hassan, had told us that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai has
approved N500 million to pay the school fees of certain categories of
students.”
Recall that the state government in April 2021 increased the
university’s school fees between N24,000 and N26,000 to N150,000 and N500,000.
When contacted, the Chairman of ASUU in the university, Dr
Peter Adamu, said he was not aware of the plan to reopen the university on July
13 by KASU management.
“In fact, I am just hearing this from you, and I want to
make it categorically clear that we are not a party to this arrangement,” Mr
Adamu said.
NAN
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