The Maitama Yusuf Sule Federal University of Education, Kano, has continued admission of National Certificate of Education (NCE) academic programmes, two years after its conversion and upgrade to university status.

Formerly the Federal College of Education, the institution migrated to university status along with the Federal College of Education, Zaria, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, and Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, in 2023 to enhance enrolment and accessibility.

The conversion followed the executive approval of the Federal Executive Council, presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who subsequently endorsed the renaming in honour of late sage and foremost Northern political elite, Maitama Sule.

However, there are grave concerns over the stagnation of the practical switchover of the college to a full-fledged degree-awarding institution two years after its transformation.

The concerns stem from deafening worries, especially from those who claim the inactivity of the management and council to effect necessary policies is responsible for the slow pace.

There are indications that, apart from the change of name from college to university fixed at the main entrance and the conversion of the Chief Principal Officer from Provost to Acting Vice Chancellor, there is little or no indicator to show signs of a university campus. To make the situation worse, the recent 2024/2025 admissions were issued for NCE programmes.

Although the Federal Government has constituted the university’s governing council headed by Pro-Chancellor, Prof. Ahmad Adamu, with a few members drawn from the management team, the council is yet to invoke the necessary provisions to set the institution on the right footing.

As required of the council, efforts have not been taken to properly place academic and non-academic staff of the institution into appropriate cadres to conform to the university administrative system, investigations revealed.

This action was said to be delayed by the council, in connivance with the management of the university, tactically to frustrate the constitution of the university senate and congress.

Apart from that, the management has equally been blamed for the deliberate refusal to enrol the university on the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) platform, to delay applications for degree programs in the university, The Guardian gathered.

A level 200 NCE student, Habeeb Ahmad, told The Guardian that the entire upgrade of the college to a university is still strange to many students because the university management has not made any clear statement on how the transition will take full course.

Ahmad appealed to the management to release details of the university courses to enable students to prepare for the new development ahead of time.
Another 100-level student of English Education, an NCE programme, Ghazali Abubakar, claimed there wasn’t anything on the ground to suggest the institution has been upgraded to a university system.

“As far as I am concerned, this school is still a college of education. Forget about the university thing they put outside. Take, for instance, the last people admitted were for the NCE program, and that is after the university has been named. So, I don’t know, maybe they don’t want the university here,” Abubakar said.

But Chairman of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COASU), Dr. Ado Muhammad, believed the management should not be blamed for the nagging take-off of the university system.

Dr. Muhammad posited that despite tremendous efforts by the management to effect a full migration to a degree-awarding institution, the process of transition from college to university cannot be done overnight.

Besides, Dr. Muhammad reminded that part of the challenge is the constitution of the Senate and Congress, which the Federal Government needs to reconstitute, noting that it becomes pertinent because the “Pro-Chancellor is presently the VC of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), making it impossible for him to function in the same capacity. Maybe that is what is causing the delay in the entire process.”

According to him, since the pronouncement of the upgrade, we are in the process of transitioning from the college to the university system. College is quite different from the way a university operates. NUC has sent a resource visitation to assess our resources. This is part of the transition.

He added, “Again, don’t forget we are also yet to have an Act that will enable us to run as a substantive university. The council and management are working under the ministry and would only do what the Federal Government instructs them to do.

“The university is also trying its best with the council to enrol on JAMB, which we are not yet done with, because they felt there are some issues they need to settle. Resource visitation is one of those things. Regarding the issue of right placement, we are waiting for the Federal Ministry of Education to constitute a committee that will do the staff right placement.

“Ideally, it should be the responsibility of the council, but since that was not gotten right at Adeyemi and Alvan Ikoku, which eventually triggered serious challenges, the Federal Government will take it up. It takes time, and we need to be patient.”

Disagreeing with the leader of COASU, a senior academic staff member in the college, Dr. AbdulKareem Tijjani, insisted that the university management and council do not need external influence to give effect to a framework that will set the university on a sound footing.

In a contrary view, Dr. Tijjani said the management and council have failed to do the needful on the upgrade of staff, enrollment on the JAMB platform, and even to query the continued stay of the Acting Vice Chancellor after the expiration of his tenure.

He said, “What is responsible for the delay that we could not commence the programme at the right time is what brought about suspicion, and that suspicion led to people coming up to the media to speak and agitate for urgent upgrade of FCE Kano to university.

“We discovered that people are being sponsored by the management of the institution, particularly some college unions, to openly speak against the university status.

“While other institutions are implementing the transition process, we continue to align ourselves with the old unions and meet with the Colleges of Education platform at the national level to truncate the transition of this college to a university.

“The university council has been operating with incomplete membership because they are only operating on the basis of Federal Government appointees. No college representations, no senate representation, no congregation representation, no alumni representation, no community representation on the council.”

Dr. Tijjani further added that from the time of the upgrade up to this time, it is one person who has been active — the Acting Vice Chancellor. Then, he was appointed for six months, and from the time they gave him the six months, which terminated by February 2025, the VC has continued on the seat without any formal communication.”

“On the recent visit of NUC resource visitation, it is a welcome development. However, we believe justice delayed is justice denied. We noticed a deliberate attempt to create a distance between us in the North and the South in terms of implementation and upgrade,” Dr. Tijjani noted.

Efforts to clear the doubts regarding the blame placed on the management of the university were not fruitful. Even though the Acting Vice Chancellor, Dr. Sirajo, was available during a fact-finding visit, all efforts to get a reaction from the Deputy Provost and Registrar were not successful, as both were said to be too busy to speak to the media on the issue.

When our correspondent later reached out to the Acting Vice Chancellor through his mobile phone for inquiry, Prof. Sirajo also declined comment, saying he was busy with some visitors presently at the institution. Although he promised to return the call, he, however, did not until press time.