About the creation of Orerokpe Campus of DELSUT and all that… (FEATURE)

BY OLOMAH OPIA

Worried about the shortage of admission space for tertiary education seekers in Nigeria, the former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof Dibu Ojerinde, was moved, sometime in 2022, to advocate governments’ embrace of multi campus university system.

In his words, “the multi campus system is good because it helps to spread the economy and reduce the problem of education for immediate communities.

“If state governments have the resources, they should do it. Osun State University, for instance, has about seven campuses and they are all prospering.”

Perhaps, it is in furthering  this approach that the Delta State Government moved to set up a campus at Orerokpe out of its University of Science and Technology, Ozoro.

Curiously, the move threw up emotions and protests in Isoko, eliciting a debate, during the week, on the process and substance of the establishment of the new campus.

First, a few questions should be clearly out of the debate. It is inconceivable that a State Government can be bullied, intimidated or denied the right or liberty to establish multi campuses out of its existing universities.

Multi campus university system is a global phenomenon and trend, and the state had adopted it with the creation of Oleh and Anwai campuses out of the Delta State University, Abraka, with a part of its School of Medicine also taken to Oghara to set up a University Teaching Hospital.

As pointed out, while Osun State University has seven campuses, the University of Nigeria also has three campuses, the parent campus at Nsukka and in Enugu and Etuku Ozala.

The grouse of the Isoko Nation is that the Faculty of Management Sciences which is proposed to be transferred to start the new campus at Orerokpe, purportedly has the largest student population, and it’s transfer would constrain the financial viability of the Ozoro campus through loss of student tuition and other revenue, and will also undermine the commercial investments already committed by the local business community in consideration of the student population in Ozoro. This brings the issue to numbers.

The Ozoro principal campus is currently running six faculties out of which only one is to be transferred to create another campus.

Question is, what exactly is the student population of the Faculty of Management? How possible is it that the management students population is so more than that of the other five faculties?

Though, they are neither saying that they would prefer the retention of the Management faculty for the transfer of the other five faculties to the new campus.

As advertised in the school’s course profile, Ozoro has seven faculties – Agriculture, Science, Earth Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Information Technology and Management Science.

The seven faculties have about 48 departments, listed as Agricultural Extension and Rural Development; Animal Production and Health Services; Fisheries Technology; Agricultural Economics and Farm Management; Agricultural Business; Crop Science and Technology; Biological Sciences; Chemical Sciences; Physics; Mathematics and Statistics;

Forensic Science; Science Laboratory Technology; Geology; Marine Science;

Environmental Management and Toxicology; Petroleum Chemistry; Petroleum Engineering; Marine Engineering; Gas and Oil Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Water Resources Engineering;

Agricultural Engineering;

Electrical Engineering;

Food Science and Technology; Aerospace Engineering; Material and Metallurgical Engineering; Computer Science; Cyber Security; Software Engineering; Information System and Technology; Architecture; Estate Management; Quantity Surveying; Surveying and Geoinformatics; Building Technology; Environmental Management; Urban and Regional Planning; Fine and Applied Arts; Industrial Design; Accounting and Finance; Marketing; Business Administration; Entrepreneurship; Transport Management; Office Technology Management; and Media/Communication Management.

While the transfer of the Management courses would truly mean the transfer of about ten departments, the  school would still be left with about 38 other departments, but it also means that the university can increase its intake in the remaining faculties and departments which can make up for the number that may be lost from the management courses.

Also, the Vice Chancellor has revealed that the school was already working on establishing twelve new departments which will attract more students.

Notwithstanding these measures, before the contemplation to open the new campus, the State Government had already sought and secured approval from the National Universities Commission for the establishment of three more new faculties for the Ozoro campus, as Governor Sheriff Oborevwori confirmed to visiting Isoko nation leaders.

The new faculties are Basic Medical Sciences, Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and they collectively can add about twenty more departments to the school.

From the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences will come such departments as Anatomy; Biochemistry; Medical Microbiology; Parasitology; Morbid Anatomy; Pharmacology; Physiology; and Biomedical Engineering.

The Faculty of Pharmacy will provide Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology; Pharmacology; Pharmacognosy; Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry; Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice; Pharmaceutical Microbiology; and Biotechnology, while the Faculty of Health Sciences will also provide such departments as

Public Health; Medical Laboratory Science; Nursing Science; Optometry; Nutrition and Dietetics; and

Environmental Health Science.

With these, the number that may be lost to the transfer of the Faculty of Management will pale in significance to the new numbers that would come through the new faculties and departments.

From all indications, the state seems to be intent on streamlining to focus Ozoro on core science and technology courses, while Orerokpe campus focuses on Social and Management courses.

That would tend to make Ozoro a specialised science and technology centre, and in today’s world, that would be a very welcome development for education in Delta State.

There are those who argue that the government ought only to start the new campus with new courses rather than borrowing a faculty from the existing campus and also approving three more faculties for it, but the truth is that there is no one approach to establishing a campus: it can be started with new faculties and as well as by transfer of a faculty or faculties.

In any case, had the government moved to open the new campus with the three newly approved faculties, same naysayers would still have accused it of undercutting the parent school to open a new campus. This argument can be without end.

There are also speculations that it might be difficult or would take a long time to achieve the fullness of a possible specialised science and tech campus in Ozoro, considering the professional regulations and funding for the technical requirements involved, but it all depends on the acumen of the university management and the commitment of the state government to achieve a scientific and technological learning destination.

On this, suffice to say that Governor Oborevwori has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to the advancement of education in the state, just as he has also assured Isoko Nation that he cannot undermine their development.

Interestingly, inside sources have also revealed that the state government has already approved about N1b to support the establishment and take off of the new faculties and departments.

There are various highly successful specialized universities in the world. Many of them started with vagaries, difficulties and periodic restructure, but they have grown in reputation and occupy the top most positions in world universities ranking.

It should be seen that graduates of such specialised institutions are more easily employable because of their specialist knowledge, skills and practical relevance to the industrial sector.

They also elicit greater partnership, scholarship, research funding and development aids from industries, agencies and institutions because of their relevance in seeking solutions to the engineering, agricultural, medical, health and environmental challenges of the modern world.

That was how, also going through various phases, such institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology and others which focus specially on core science and tech, have come to thrive.

What seems to be happening with Ozoro and Orerokpe is an attempt by the government to expand the space for tertiary education and spread opportunities for development across the state.

Indeed, it is still possible for the government to open up further campuses from principal campuses like Abraka, Ozoro, Agbor and Anwai, in other yearning  parts of the state, especially in the riverine areas.

Such moves, as in the case of Ozoro and Orerokpe, should not be resisted nor interpreted in ethnic and political terms.

Delta is one state, one people, in which the various parts are expected to lean or lend their shoulder to one another for more inclusive and even development.