FUTO VC renders account, praises self

Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, Imo State, Prof Francis Chukwuemeka Eze has disclosed that despite the daunting challenges which his administration faced in the last year, it has excelled in the core mandate of teaching, research and community service.

Eze told The Guardian in an interview shortly after addressing the school’s general assembly to mark his first year in office, that one remarkable innovation his administration made was that for the first time, the 5,445 students that matriculated were issued registration numbers immediately, thereby ending the age-long challenge of cases of students without registration numbers.

Eze noted that during the last NUC accreditation exercise, they presented thirteen programmes for accreditation and eleven were accredited, while two received interim accreditation, architecture and building, explaining that inability to meet staffing requirement was the cause.

He stated that the menace of commercial motorcycle operators on campus coupled with the security challenges their presence posed had been successfully checked with the introduction of campus shuttle services, adding that a new FUTO motor park was ongoing.

On students’ welfare, he pledged to continue to ensure a conducive and comfortable learning environment, adding that the twitter handle recently launched has improved interaction between management and students as well as guard against misinformation on social media.

Eze, who frowned at the February 17 violent demonstration on campus by some students, resulting to the school’s closure for three months, blamed the development partly to “collection of illegal fees by some staff members”.

Explaining that those involved in the act would face the necessary sanctions, he said the University senate approved fees scheduled which departmental boards were expected to adhere strictly and stop unnecessary extortion.

He said his administration has introduced robust and dynamic online portal application that fully and effectively profiled the students with tracking of payment records and course registration, adding that the deployment of the online allocation of hostel has considerably reduced sharp practices associated with it.