Being the full text of the address by Professor Andy Ogochukwu Egwunyenga, Vice-Chancellor, Delta State University, Abraka Delta State at the Press Conference held on 26th April, 2023, for the 15th Convocation Ceremonies.
Another Bountiful Harvest!
It is with great joy and a sense of accomplishment that I welcome distinguished gentlemen and women of the press and other guests to this interaction to usher in ceremonies and programmes for the 15th Convocation for graduation and award of Degrees, Diplomas and Prizes to deserving graduands of Delta State University, Abraka. The University Administration regards the Press and the community as worthy partners in the realization of its mission of promoting quality education, character, scholarship and professionalism.
The University Convocation is the Assembly of Principal Officers of the University, Senate, Congregation and Alumni constituted by the Vice Chancellor for specific functions. The 15th Convocation is primarily for the purpose of awards of Degrees, Diplomas and Prizes of the University to deserving graduands who have been found worthy in character and in learning. There shall be no award of honorary Doctorate Degrees and Emeritus Professors at the 15th Convocation of the University.
The University is an industry for educating students and producing competent individuals for influential and competitive careers. A good University should produce future leaders in business, the economy, healthcare, and government. Convocation for the graduation of students is, therefore, the harvest ceremony of the University. To ensure a bountiful harvest, this administration has devoted the past one year to building capacity through the development of infrastructure for teaching, research, and quality assurance
Gentlemen of the Press, let me use this opportunity to highlight some strides in this direction.
Physical Infrastructure:
i. Building of the Faculty of Management Sciences. This was started on the 28th of April 2022. It will be commissioned on Saturday, the 29th of April, 2023.
ii. Completion of 3.2km of Road Network within the permanent site of the University.
iii. Tarring of internal roads in the Faculty of Engineering and Provost Office of Oleh Campus of Delta State University.
iv. Construction of a block of 6 classrooms to expand infrastructure at Delta State University, Staff Secondary School.
v. Renovation of University Student hostels; Eco hostel, NDDC Female Medical Hostel and Cannon Mason hostel. This has restored the hostel culture of the University.
Strengthening Academic Programmes:
i. Securing of full accreditation for all the forty (40) Programmes presented to National Universities Commission (NUC) in the November/December 2022 Accreditation Exercise. This happens to be the first time since the 31 years of existence of the Delta State University, Abraka, that full accreditation would be returned for forty (40) Programmes in one fell swoop. Now, all eighty (80) Programmes in the University have full NUC accreditation status. No interim accreditation, no denial for any Programme. This again is unprecedented in the history of the University and has only been made possible by the unwavering determination of the University Administration and the entire staff to advance and reposition Delta State University, Abraka, for national and global recognition.
ii. Most recently, approval was sought and obtained from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to raise the University’s Admission Quota for the Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Programme from 75 to 120. This was targeted at reducing the admission pressure that qualified students from Delta and neighbouring States go through in getting admitted to study Medicine and Surgery at Delta State University, Abraka. It is worthy of note that the current administration met the admission quota for the MBBS Programme at 50 upon assumption of duty in December 2019. The first increase was from 50 to 75.
iii. Obtaining approval from the National Universities Commission (NUC) for the commencement of some new Degree Awarding Programmes, namely: Entrepreneurship Studies, Office & Information Management, Biotechnology, Public Administration and Medical Laboratory Science.
iv. Currently awaiting the report of NUC’s Resource Verification Exercise for the commencement of the Agriculture Business Management Programme and the Doctor of Pharmacy Programme. The University hitherto only ran the Bachelor of Pharmacy Programme.
Research And International Collaboration:
1. Canadian -Israel Research Grant
Delta State University is pleased to announce to the Nigeria Scientific Community and the general public the approval of Benneth’s Joint Canadian- Israel Research Program to be conducted in Delta State University. The research team is led by Dr. Ben-Azu, Head of the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences. His research interest spans the study of Neuropsychiatry (neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders) and Neuropharmacology; brain diseases including schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stress-related neuropathological conditions.
The research grant is to investigate the outcomes of senescence on microglial physiological and immune functions: implications for viral infection and Alzheimer’s disease pathology along the ageing trajectory, which is jointly funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), and the Azrieli Foundation. The grant is to be independently hosted by three Co-principal investigators (PIs): here at Delta State University (DELSU), in the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay (from the Division of Medical Sciences University of Victoria), and Dr. Dan Frenkel of the Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv, Israel. The grant is worth 500,000 Canadian dollars, over #250,000,000 naira for a period of 4 years to conduct different aspects of the project. The Joint Canada-Israel Health Research Program provides funding for researchers from Canada, Israel, and low- and middle-income countries to form multidisciplinary teams and work on cutting-edge biomedical and global health research. Additionally, the Canadian-Israel Phase II grant is partly aimed at training postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows as well as undergraduate students for a period of 4 years. Also, this grant would feature the exchange program of trainees (postgraduates and a postdoc) between the three Universities and PIs, as well as organizing symposiums during the study across the different Universities involved. Ultimately, this grant will pave the way to further strengthening research capacity in Delta State University.
2. Centre For Research And International Programmes (CRIP):
Opening Statement on our Strategic Plan
The mission and vision of the Directorate is to use ICT to drive the Research, linkages and internationalization of our university. Specifically, our research goal is to help make the university the epicentre of multidisciplinary research that is providing solutions to the problems of the taxpayers, communities, government, private sector and humanity in general. On linkages and internationalization, our goal is to engage the University in linkages and partnerships with other universities as well as both governmental and non-governmental bodies within and outside the countries to make our university globally visible.
i. International Students’ Fees
For a speedy boost in the internationalization of the university, the DELSU management has approved an international school fees schedule for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. It is very instructive to emphasize that apart from helping in our ranking and internationalization of our University, the international students will also be a source of IGR hence it is a win-win situation.
ii. New Strategy of DELSU Signing MoUs with Other Institutions and Organizations
Our current guiding philosophy for initiating or participating in partnering with other universities is to drive the implementation once an MoU has been signed. Therefore, we are striving to implement the current active MoUs with other universities/organizations and renew the MoUs with those having records of implementation.
iii. Major Project I: Exploration of new culturable aquatic species from the Delta State and the development of aquafeed for sustainable aquaculture
DELSU decided to use innovative and transformative Aquaculture to bridge the huge gap between fish demand and domestic production as well as non-readily availability of tilapia feed by signing two MoUs with the National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU), Keelung and also with the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) to actuate a tripartite partnership between DELSU, NTOU and NIOMR.
To develop the cooperative mechanisms between the partners in this aforementioned collaboration, a DELSU Team (Prof Mrs Rosemary Okoh -Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof Godfrey E. Akpojotor – CRIP Director and Dr Esther Kadiene – CRIP Deputy Director) were hosted by the President of NTOU, Prof Tai-Wen Hsu and top officials of the University. Since Taiwan is 7 hours ahead of us, I had to stay awake till about 3.00 a.m. to virtually present my speech which was also translated into Chinese language.
The remarkable outcomes from this visit include Agreements to set up multi-disciplinary tilapia research collaborations; access to some of NTOU Laboratories; joint degrees starting at the postgraduate level; exchange of staff and students; setting up of a pilot tilapia farm for research in DELSU using special tilapia strains from Taiwan and co-organizing international conferences/workshops. DELSU and NIOMR were recently invited to participate in the Taiwan-Africa Smart Sustainable Agriculture and Marine & Aquaculture Forum (TASSAMA 2023), a Hybrid Conference from March 25 – March 26, 2023. TASSAMA is a forum of six universities in Taiwan and three institutions in Africa.
iv. Major Project II: Poultry Project
Another major project is to meet the SDG for food sufficiency is the DELSU current strategic plan to advance our existing small scale farms into a large scale modern poultry farms involving integrated poultry value chain processes viz production, processing, input and marketing, all driven by innovative and transformative research. The multidisciplinary Committee I set up for this purpose developed a robust business plan and incorporated the DELSU Agro-Allied Services Limited (DAASL), which will now be driving the production of poultry and tilapia products to Deltans and beyond, as well as engaged staff, students and our host community in the various chains’ processes.
v. TRaCE Transborder Project
I approved DELSU to be an Institutional Partner of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Partnership Development Grant for the TRaCE Transborder Project, which is a partnership of universities and organizations in North America, Europe, Africa, India, China and Australia that seeks to transform the problem of PhD underemployment into a global opportunity, hoping to expose our PhD grads to various career pathways as well as bring about innovation where necessary to our PhD programmes.
vi. 2023 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow: Professor Augustine Avwunudiogba
DELSU will be hosting Dr. Augustine Avwunudiogba, who is currently a Professor of Geography and Environmental Resources at the California State University (CSU), Stanislaus, USA, as the 2023 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow in our Department of Geography and Regional Planning. The capacity building through this fellowship is one opportunity we are going to explore to bring accomplished educators and researchers in diverse disciplines from the USA to strengthen our curricula, teaching/learning, and research in order to boost our linkages and internationalization.
3. Directorate For Agricultural Research And Plant Conservation:
Collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA)
i. Collaboration with IITA, Ibadan, for field trials of arable crops and industrial experience for DELSU students of agriculture and research experiment facilities for DELSU students in IITA.
ii. Collaboration with Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, CRIN, in the area of students’ industry experience. Another area of Collaboration is the Cocoa Initiative in Delta State for sensitization and encouragement of farmers to invest in Cocoa farming.
iii. Collection and field conservation of endangered species of plants, including trees, shrubs, stimulant and spices plants. This is done in cooperation with the Department of Forestry and Wildlife, DELSU.
iv. Publication of research articles.
v. Establishment of Cocoa plantation as a model for training farmers on Cocoa cultivation.
vi. Floated the Journal of Agriculture and Conservation of Natural Resources. The maiden edition will be released in May, 2023.
vii. Cloning of yam vine for production of seed yams.
viii. Executed hydroponics for the production of selected vegetable crops.
ix. Succeeded in putting endangered trees and other plant species in the conservation park. This is done continuously as more endangered species are found.
x. Reproduction of cowpea species for future improvement of the crop.
xi. The plan for improved tomatoes and watermelon cultivation for the training of farmers in our catchment area and DELSU community has been concluded.
4. The Advanced Research Centre:
1. Equipping of the centre with state of the art equipment. We now have five functional laboratories where cutting-edge advanced research can be carriedbout. Equipment available includes an atomic spectrometer and GL Chromotographic equipment, which can be used to carry out cutting-edge research.
2. Establishment of career profiles for Research Centres from Research Fellows to Chief/Research Professors in the University.
3. Research on the nutritional, microbial qualities as well as the production of pellets of edible Palm weevil, larvae, and a positive impact on food security.
4. Workshop was organised for Principal Officers, Heads of Department, Laboratory Staff of Science and Science based Faculties of the university.
5. Registration of the DELSU Advance Research Laboratory Ltd, a subsidiary of the Centre, has commenced.
Delta State University Ranking
1. In the latest global ranking of Universities by Alper-Doger Scientific Index, Delta State University was ranked as the 27th best University in Nigeria among the over 200 Universities in the country and the 4th best among State owned Universities. Further analysis of the ranking showed the University to be the best State University in the South-South and South Eastern part of Nigeria. Furthermore, another highly recognized global Universities ranking body, Webometrics, in their own latest ranking, placed the University as 194th out of 2087 Universities in Africa and 24th out of over 200 universities in Nigeria, based on verified Google Scholar Citations. According to the ranking, Delta State University recorded 56,443 citations, beating some highly rated Universities in the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Turkey, Portugal, Canada, and some other more advanced countries. This again is consistent with the Alper-Doger Scientific Index ranking that earlier placed the University as the 27th best in the country and 4th best State owned University.
2. Given the stringent conditions for participating in the global Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of Universities, Delta State University, Abraka got qualified and invited for the first time in January 2023 to submit an entry for the latest and ongoing prestigious THE Ranking. Entry has now been submitted by the University, and the result of the ranking is being awaited. This is indeed a product of the deliberate and strategic leadership acumen of the current administration at repositioning the University into becoming a globally recognized citadel of research, teaching and learning.
Capacity Building And Innovation:
The University Administration in order to ensure compliance with University global best practice and competitiveness over two years ago developed four policy documents to guide conduct of staff, students and other stakeholders.
These include;
· Environment Policy
· Security Policy
· Plagiarism Policy
· Sexual Harassment Policy
Two new Policy Documents have been developed this year. First is the Gender Policy initiated by the Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS). The policy was the outcome of a summit on Women in Leadership and Development hosted by CGDS, in October, 2021.
The Policy aims at creating clear framework to drive the development of practice and procedures that will ensure equal rights and opportunities for men and women in all areas and structures of the University including students and staff. The Policy will promote and ensure gender equity, establish structures, programmes and mechanisms to empower men and women, and transform gender relations within the University. Delta State University is committed to eliminate barriers to women development and shall declare its position boldly on gender issues within its community, nationally and internally.
This year, Senate also approved the Copyright Policy. The Policy is consistent with the Nigerian Copyright Act,2022 to protect writer’s rights to secure fair compensation and acknowledgement for their creative labours while also establishing restrictions and exceptions to facilitate public access to works of arts.
The Delta State University Copyright Policy deals with the issue of Ownership, Publication and External Use and Payment for an academic’s Intellectual Property.
Appreciation
On behalf of the University Administration, I wish to express the gratitude of the University to our Visitor and Governor, Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, for his unwavering support in funding the University. We are very grateful to the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Professor Sam Oyovbaire, for his inspiring leadership and for creating an enabling environment for the University Administration to discharge its responsibilities in line with the University statue. We also acknowledge the contributions of other distinguished members of Council.
I thank my colleagues in Senate for ensuring the sustenance of high academic standards.
I also thank members of Congregation and other staff of the University for keying into my administrative mantra to “Lead, Inspire, Advance and Transform”. Together we have changed for the better the fortunes of Delta State University.
My dear students remain the most important community of the University, without who all of us will not be here. I commend them for being disciplined, open and receptive to the advancement of knowledge. We are grateful to other agencies of government, including National Universities Commission, NUC; Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund; Federal Ministry of Education NEEDs Assessment Programme; and Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for their role in the development of the University.
Finally, I thank friends of the University and our host communities for being worthy partners.
Thank you all for listening.
Professor Andy Ogochukwu Egwunyenga
Vice-Chancellor
26th April, 2023