The University of Abuja has announced that all applicants who wish to enrol in its programmes must submit to a drug test before being admitted as part of measures to combat cultism and other social vices on campus. At the 27th pre-convocation briefing in Abuja, Vice Chancellor Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’allah of the university announced this.
Na’allah claimed that the school is presently collaborating with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to assist pupils who are abusing drugs and to rehabilitate them. Na’allah has maintained a zero-tolerance policy for cults and drug addiction.
In addition to blaming drug misuse for the prevalence of social vices on Nigerian college campuses, the VC stressed the importance of knowing students’ drug use, “as this would enable the university management to find a way of helping the students to be free from drugs.
“He clarified that the goal was to rehabilitate the candidates and pupils in conjunction with NDLEA rather than to expel them.The VC also revealed that 7,128 undergraduate students will complete their degrees at the university’s convocation ceremony in 2023. He also included 100 PhDs, 326 academic masters, and 346 professional masters among the graduates.
40 students would graduate with a First Class degree, 474 with a Second Class Upper, 944 with a Second Class Lower, 174 with a Third Class degree, and one with a Pass degree, according to him. However, he claimed that moving ahead, the university has outlawed the Pass degree.
Professor Toyin Falola of the University of Texas at Houston will also receive an honorary doctorate of letters from the university, he continued, in recognition of his contributions to the expansion and advancement of the college and other African universities in general. The college would be adding Russian Language to the regular courses that students must pass in order to graduate, according to Na’allah. This, he claimed, will provide students with new information.
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“The university has developed into a global university with the offering of different languages, which include Japanese, French, Portuguese, among others. “Efforts are being made to bring in full some of the foreign languages as degree programmes, but this institution has made it compulsory in General Studies that every student must study and pass a foreign language before graduation.
“In addition to the international languages we already offer, we will also offer Russian. One of these foreign languages must be offered and passed by students, he claimed. He noted the efforts the institution had made to carry out its goals and stated that it had begun to raise money from alumni and philanthropists as well as identify foundations that may support funding for research, training, and other initiatives.
He also revealed that the university had received approval for 26 new academic programmes from the National Universities Commission (NUC).He said that the institution would start offering some of the new courses in the academic year 2023–2024. Nursing, communication and media studies, pharmacy, tourism and hospitality, and agricultural engineering are just a few of the degrees offered.