From Teryima Ajijah, Jos
The newly installed Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof. Tanko Ishaya has lamented mass migration of Nigerian students abroad due to lack of proper funding of tertiary institutions in the country.
Prof. Ishaya stated this Wednesday in Jos, at the Senate Chambers of the university, shortly after he was officially robed the 10th vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, for a five year single term.
According to Prof. Ishaya, a (100,000) hundred thousand Nigerians are currently studying in Ghana and several other countries of the world.
Prof. Tanko revealed that insecurity bedeviling Nigeria across the states has negatively affected smooth runing of academics in most universities.
Speaking on the need for more infrastructure at the University of Jos, Prof. Ishaya revealed that only 5000 students out of the 53,000, including postgraduate students are being accommodated within the university community, due to inadequate hostels.
He told the gathering that University of Jos has 15 faculties, running 75 programmes, and currently has 45,287 undergraduate students, mostly leaving off campus.
Prof. Ishaya said his administration will witness excellent academic rebirth with more research.
Pledgding to operate an open door policy; he thanked the 14th governing council who choose him among 19 applicants for the post of the Vice Chancellor.
The new vice chancellor pledged to adopt some policies and principles of his predecessors to enable him achieve set goals of academic excellence.
Earlier, while officially handing over mantle of leadership to his successor, the out-gone acting Vice Chancellor Prof. Grey Ejikeme enumerated challenges he faced during the four months he acted as the VC.
Prof. Ejikeme said the July attacks on Plateau communities truncated academic activities of the institution.
He also stated that inadequate funding destabilized his administration, even as he revealed that Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution compounded the issue, refused to attend to postgraduate students due to pending union issues.
Prof. Ishaya who graduated from UniJos, studied computer science in 1992. He obtained his Masters and PhD in the United Kingdom.