‘Edo State University Is NOT For The Poor ’- VC Boasts

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The Management of the state-owned Edo University,
Iyamho,(EUI) says the institution was established to
essentially cater for academically-endowed students and
the wealthy in the society.
The Vice Chancellor(VC) of the institution, Prof.
Emmanuel Aluyor, disclosed this in an interview with
Newsmen on Monday, in Iyamho-Uzairue, in the Estako-
West local government area of Edo.
He said: “the idea behind the establishment of Edo
University by the founding fathers is neither to replace
nor compete with the existing Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma.
“But rather, to complement it in terms of providing world-
class education with the best of infrastructure to
academically-gifted students and the rich, who can afford
the fees.
“People have questioned why former Gov. Adams
Oshiomhole did not upgrade AAU, than establishing a
new university altogether.
“Apart from its being capital-intensive to either renovate
or bring in the needed infrastructure, the idea was to
provide a different brand of education to the people.
“We are offering world-class infrastructure and state-of-
the art facilities at EUI; that is why our fees are high.
According to him, the fees range from between N400, 000
and N450, 000 a session.
“And that depends from which perspective you are
looking at it.
“If it is from the perspective of a private university, our
fees are very low indeed, because there is no private
university that charges anything lower than what we
offer.
“And only one or two public universities charge the same
fees as us and that also depends on the quality of
infrastructure and programmes on offer.
“The idea of the founding fathers is for anyone to have
an ambiance of everything he desires abroad in any
university environment here,’’ Aluyor said.
According to him, the university authority has also
assembled first class academic and non-academic staff
to complement the infrastructure and facilities, to ensure
that the students are well groomed in character and in
learning.
The VC added that management had introduced an
entrepreneurship programme for its students to prepare
them to “become employers of labour rather than those
seeking for labour.
“We have, therefore, set up facilities for entrepreneurship
training for all our students, irrespective of their course of
study, to make them to become independent on
graduation.
“We are proposing a grant of between N5 million and N10
million for any graduating student with the best
entrepreneurship proposal.
“The University Council is still trying to fine-tune the
modalities,’’ he said.
Aluyor disclosed that management abhors indiscipline
among staff and students, hence the withdrawal of some
pioneer undergraduates and erring staff.
“I am proud to mention that we have a dress code among
our students, while all our lectures are multi-media
assisted.
“We may not be proud of this information that in our first
year, we had less than 80 students admitted. But I can
tell you that we had cause to expel four of them.
“We may be young; but it does not mean we will accept
every Dick and Harry as students.
“I think what we did was showing capacity to instill
discipline.
“We have also had cause to sanction three members of
staff. We are not happy to have sent them into the
unemployment market.
“But we are saying that if you can not measure up with
the standard we have set down, you certainly can’t be
part of the vision of the founding fathers of this
university,’’ he said.
The VC disclosed that at its inception in 2016, the
National Universities Commission (NUC) only approved
two faculties, namely the Arts and Social Sciences and
the Sciences, respectively, to offer courses such as
English, Mass Communication, Biochemistry,
Mathematics, Microbiology and Computer science.
He said that the NUC later approved for the university,
three additional faculties namely Law, College of
Medicine and Engineering, but added that “we will only
admit students into the Law department this new
session.’’
Edo University, Iyamho, is a state government-owned
tertiary institution founded in 2016. It is located in
Iyamho, a town in Etsako-West local government area of
Edo State.
On March 23, 2016, the university was approved by the
NUC as Nigeria’s 41st state university. It offers
undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes.
On March 27, 2014, the Edo State House of Assembly
passed a bill for the establishment of a University of
Science and Technology at Uzairue.
The University was, however, changed to Edo University
and its location to Iyamho.