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Tag: University

  • I failed, became an object of ridicule in school- Woli Arole

    Ace comedian and actor, Woli Arole has opened up on the challenges he had to overcome before he became a star.

    The popular Instagram comedian made this known during an Instagram Live chat with Nigerian rapper, Bouqui.

    According to him, he failed and became an object of ridicule when he was in the University.

     

    “I started cracking jokes for my friends in 100 level. A guy told me I am funny and advised me to make it career. That was how the journey started.I switched from Biochemistry to another department. I failed, had carry overs. My mates had already graduated, I didn’t graduate. I was gradually becoming an object of ridicule”.

     

    Arole also shed light on the turning point in his life.

    “When I was in 400 level, I left Ife for Lagos and I stayed with a brother’s friend who attends Daystar Christian Centre. That was how my life changed. The church also gave me a platform. Crossing from Bio Chemistry to Psychology was a trying time in my life. I knew I was going to conquer my challenges”.

     

    The comedian also urged individuals who have lost their jobs as a result of Covid-19 not to lose hope.

    Hear him:”If you have lost your job, don’t lose your mind. If you have lost your money, don’t lose your mind.When I started out I had the issue of acceptability. Now everybody wants me.If you say I am not funny that is your choice, it doesn’t change who I am. My ability not to succumb to people’s validation has helped me so far”, he said.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • JUST IN: Atiku’s University sacks 400 workers

    Sequel to a long restructuring process, the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa, has sacked 400 of its workers.

    AUN is owned by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

    Prof. Abba Tahir, the Vice President for University Relations, AUN, made the disclosure in a statement made available to newsmen in Yola on Tuesday.

    Tahir said that majority of the affected personnel were those that had no significant developmental effect on the philosophy of the university.

    “Certain structural elements have been initiated by the new Governing Council of American University of Nigeria (AUN), in response to NUC requirements, mandating the institution to align with an approved governance structure for all tertiary institutions in the country.

    ”Until now, AUN has operated a student-staff ratio which balance had continued to affect the sustainability of the university.

    ”This is clearly an uncommon and hardly workable tradition in all institutions and organisations around the world. Obviously it is unattainable.

    ”Thus, consequent upon the university’s new governing council vote to restructure the institution in line with its agenda for sustainability, a process of workforce rationalisation has been in the pipeline.

    ”It is now time for the university to look back, look around and look ahead, to ensure that realistic and globally competitive administrative practices can be achieved in structure, strategy and focus.

    “It would not be realistic for AUN to continue to anchor its administrative structure on an over-bloated personnel whose role do not have significant effect on the philosophy of a development university,” he said.

    The vice president for university relations further stated that in the emerging sustainable structure, competitive personnel were retained, while others were disengaged honourably.

    He said that all those affected were paid all their contractual benefits at the point of clearance, to continue with their lives somewhere else.

    Tahir said that as a typical American style institution, AUN deliberately trained its students to search for sustainable solutions to human development challenges.

    ”Students are deliberately armed with lifelong skills and competencies to develop sustainable solutions to the myriad of challenges faced by society.

    ”The challenges posed by the unsustainable redundancies in AUN’s operational structure for the university is one that needed to be addressed ever since,” Tahir said.

  • University suspends two sex-for-grades lecturers

    University suspends two sex-for-grades lecturers

    Two University of Ghana lecturers who featured last year in a BBC sex-for-grades documentary on sexual misconduct have been suspended and ordered to undergo “appropriate” training on sexual harassment and misconduct, according to a statement issued by the university.

    The University of Ghana suspended Prof. Ransford Gyampo for six months and Dr. Paul Butakor for four months.

    The statement by the university said after the completion of the work by the Senior Members’ Disciplinary Committee, it “recommended a six-month suspension without pay for Ransford Gyampo and a four-month suspension without pay for Paul Butakor”, which it said was “in line with statute 46(2) of the University of Ghana Statutes, as amended, and regulation 15.0 of the Code of Conduct for Academic Staff of the University of Ghana”.

    According to the statement, the suspensions take effect from 1 January 2020.

    In addition, Ransford Gyampo and Paul Butakor are required to “undergo appropriate training on the University of Ghana’s Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy as well as the Code of Conduct for Academic Staff of the University of Ghana”.

    The statement said they will be required to receive a positive assessment after training and before resumption of their duties. They are also required to undergo an annual assessment for a period of five years.

    A fact-finding committee chaired by Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo, a retired Supreme Court judge, investigated allegations of misconduct against Gyampo and Butakor following the broadcast of the documentary titled “Sex for Grades: Undercover in West African universities”.

    The committee found evidence that the lecturers had contravened the relevant provisions on misconduct in the University of Ghana Statutes and the Code of Conduct for Academic Senior Members and recommended that the case be referred to the Disciplinary Committee for Senior Members.

    The university assured all students, faculty, staff, other stakeholders and the public of its commitment to rooting out acts of misconduct, sexual harassment or any other form of harassment, and that it would not tolerate such acts among students and employees of the university.

    Gyampo, head of European Studies, had claimed that the documentary was “bogus and [an] attempt by some people to bring me down” after he was filmed telling an undercover reporter that he will marry her. He then asks her what school she went to. After she responds, he says: “There is a rumour that the students of that school like penis.”

    Butakor, a lecturer in the College of Education, also denied any wrongdoing. He was filmed asking an undercover journalist if he could become her “side guy”, adding that “a side will see how best to contribute to your career”.

  • I attended University despite already having children- Joke Silva

    Nollywood actress, Joke Silva has revealed that she attended University despite already having children.

    She made this known on Friday’s edition of TV talk-show, ‘Your View’.

    ”I attended the University after giving birth to two children and there was still a professor that harassed. It has nothing to do with the way a girl is dressed”.

    On her hopes for Nigeria she said: ”I believe Nigeria cannot move with just one political party, we must have two parties in place. I believe in Nigeria totally. Nigeria has come into a space where she hasn’t been allowed to make her mistakes undercover of anonymity. Social media is out there and we put everything out there. There are mistakes other countries have made and there was no social media at the time. Every time we talk about Nigeria, we talk about our country with such disdain. I believe in Nigeria totally. Let us make our mistakes”.

    Silva noted that at times women put too much pressure on men.

    “We need to raise our men in a way that we are not putting too much pressure on them”, she said.

    Speaking further, the outspoken actress noted that she was once trolled on social media.

    “After the election I posted the picture of the APC leader and I said congratulations now hit the ground running .I had almost 10,000 comments. Usually when I post, I just move on to other things. Someone called me, asking me If I was okay. It didn’t hurt me, It just made me angry. What if it I was a young person who doesn’t have that strong belief? That person can commit suicide”.

     

  • It took me seven years to graduate from the University-Tenientertainer

    It took me seven years to graduate from the University-Tenientertainer

    Teniola Apata a.k.a Tenientertainer has opened up on how her seven years sojourn in the university
    inspired her hit single, ‘Uyo Meyo’.
    “It just came from me being grateful to God for everything thus far. For me, even being able to complete the programme, it took me 7 years to graduate from the university,” she said in a recent interview with Notjustok Television.
    “I was just in my car driving to graduation and on my way to graduation, I was listening to a song I had and I called the producer and said send me the beat because the beat was so spiritual and I just started freestyling in my car and that’s just how ‘Uyo Meyo’ came out.
    ‘Uyo Meyo’ is a good song that was created from the bottom of her heart,” She stressed.
    The 26-year-old BET awards nominee says her hit single, ‘Uyo Meyo’ is good music. In her words, “Uyo Meyo is good music. I have had governors call me because of ‘Uyo Meyo’ and I sat across Dangote because of ‘Case’.
    Isn’t that good music? Actually, I saw Dangote twice in a row, why? Isn’t that good music? ‘Uyo Meyo’ was a song that was just from the bottom of my heart.
    Teni who spoke further on her inspiration and her dream to win a Grammy is so confident of her talent and abilities that she says she will not only win Grammys but also perform and sell out stadiums globally.
    “I believe I will win the Grammys, I know I will win the Grammys, I will win the Grammys and I will sell out stadiums around the world. I just know, it’s just in my soul,” she said.
    In the early part of the interview, Teni reminisced on how she has prophesied greatness to herself and how it came to be.
    “I told someone, you better take my picture, you better take my number because I will be a superstar. I was just saying it, do I even know what I was saying? I was just saying my own, but I just spoke it to the universe,” she reminisced.
    Teni says she would only do what she feels or wish to do and not what others want her to do.
    On her personality, the `Askamaya” singer says she’s known to be a stubborn lady, who does solely what she wishes and not others wish for her.
    “People I grew up with, like friends, have always known me to be a stubborn person,” she began. “I do what I want to do because I just realise from a very young age that look here, how long am I going to be on this earth?
    I need to enjoy my life, as long as I am not harming anybody, I need to do what is best for Teni.
    I would rather fail at what I want to do than fail doing what someone told me to do.
    I’m comfortable in what I am wearing, I mean if I was wearing all these tight things, I won’t be comfortable,” she said.
    For Teni, people’s worth is in their person and not their estimated worth.
    She says, “Everybody has something to offer, I can’t do your job, can’t hold the camera like the cameraman but you have to be with them to realise because in Nigeria, you being special depends on how much money you have. People don’t know their worth is in their skin.”
    Teni’s confidence in her talent when she started was so strong that she told her label owner, Dr. Dolor that he would be making a huge mistake if he fails to sign her.
    “Here’s what I told my boss before he signed me.I told my boss (Dr. Dolor) that if you don’t sign me, you are going to be making a very bad decision because I’m different.”
    Teni, who has gone from being Headies award rookie of the year to a BET nominee in just two years, confessed to loving roadside stuff that includes local Nigerian snacks.
    She went further to share what she has learned after one of her hit singles, ‘Case,’ was released in Nigeria.
    She said, “I learned something vital when I dropped ‘Case’. If you want to keep making good music, you cannot think about making a hit song, you just have to make good music. You just have to have that juice and mindset that I want to make good music. I don’t know if it’s a hit or not, and if it’s a hit, we thank God. If it’s not a hit we keep trying.”
    Continuing, she said, “By the time Askamaya blew, I was in America, they were telling me that my song has blown in Nigeria.
    When I returned to Lagos, people were already calling me olomoge askamaya and I was like…It blew up in London like crazy, like a wildfire.”
    For her legacy, Teni wants to live a fully well-spent one. “I want to make sure that when I am dead and people gather around me to sing goodbye, and they are singing it is well, I will know that it is well.
    And I live my life for myself and I don’t leave my life for anybody.” (

  • UNN ranks number one university in Nigeria, 17 in Africa, 1,108 globally

    The new webometric ranking (July 2019 version 8.1.0 BETA), has ranked University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), as number one in Nigeria, 17 in Africa and 1,108 in the world.
    Tagged: Transparent Ranking: Top Universities by Citations in Top Google Scholar Profiles, and published on webometrics.info website, the ranking is based on highest number of citations from research publications.
    According to reports, the ranking is based on quality of research output in the year under review.While Harvard University, Stanford University and University of California, Berkely in United States (U.S.), made the top three with 8,704,969; 7,702,739 and 6,431,594 citations respectively, UNN ranked 1,108th position with 108,209 citations.
    With the ranking, UNN became the only Nigerian university in the top 20 ranking in Africa, while University of Ibadan (UI) with 86,756 citations ranked number two; followed by University of Ilorin with 74,245 citations; Covenant University with 55,844 citations and University of Lagos (UNILAG) with 41,121 citations in the fifth position.
    While UI ranked 1,246 worldwide; University of Ilorin ranked 1,328; Covenant University 1, 511 and UNILAG ranked 1,726 on the global table.University of Cape Town topped the continent’s lists with 996, 898 citations.Also, while eight U.S. universities made the top 10, two United Kingdom universities completed the list. This, however, indicates that U.S. remains a flag bearer on the global education scene.

  • How I struggled to gain admission into University- Helen Paul

    Popular comedienne and actress, Helen Paul surprised her fans when she took to her Instagram page to declare that she has just bagged a PhD from the University of Lagos. It’s a big deal for her because it is uncommon for entertainers to have doctorate degrees.

    Helen Paul who is fondly called ‘Tatafo’ by her fans also recounted how she struggled to gain admission into the University. The multi-talented entertainer also said her mother motivated her to complete her University education.

    “In my family, no one believed that I would complete secondary school education let alone attend university. My mother always told me that if I finished from secondary school with good grades, she would kill a cow because I was very restless and playful. When I finished from secondary school and took my result to her, I demanded my cow but she was not forthcoming so I asked for a chicken, but she simply told me she had cooked rice and that I should go and eat it.

    “To motivate me the more, she said that I should complete my university education, and that is when she would believe that I had really achieved a feat in life.

    “I tried gaining admission the first time but it was to no avail. I tried the second time and got admission at the University of Ilorin. By the time I got to the school, they told me that admission had closed. I began to cry as I was trekking everywhere in the school, showing people my result and the newspaper in which my name was published as part of those that passed the examination.

    “The third time I tried, I chose the University of Lagos and I gave it all my best. I would not say that I am the most brilliant person but I have God’s favour. I believed that I could do it and I did it. Despite having a PhD, I would rather people continue calling me Helen Paul and not Dr Helen Paul because nothing has changed about me”, he told Punch.

     

  • U.S. university closed after 100 students fall ill

    A university in the U.S. state of Connecticut was closed on Monday after 100 students fell ill.

    The affected students at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury were suffering from vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach pains.

    University President, John Clark, said in a statement on Monday that crews would be working to sanitise and disinfect two campuses.

    He added that the university authority would ensure that the institution was safe and secure for all before reopening.

    Clark said ” the decision to shut the university was the best and most conservative course of action to protect the community from infection and spread of the disease.”

    He urged students to return home to curb the spread of the infection and advised those
    unable to go to stay in their rooms.

    They were also alerted to seek emergency attention if they suffered from dehydration, dizziness, dry mouth, headaches and muscle cramps.

    No further information was provided on the nature of the infection.

    dpa

  • BREAKING: NASU, SSANU suspend nationwide strike

    After three months, The Non-Teaching Staff of Nigerian universities on Wednesday announced the suspension of their strike action.

    The staff, members of three unions, made of the Non Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (NASU), Senior Staff Academic of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) National Association of Academic Technologists, (NAAT), announced the suspension of the three month and 10 days old strike.

    Samson Ugwoke, the National Chairman of the Joint Action Committee of the three unions announced suspension on Wednesday at a press briefing.

    He said members of the three unions have been directed to resume on March 15, 2018.

    “We shall not hesitate to resume the strike if government reneges on the agreements reached or delays in any aspects,” he said.

    The workers commenced the strike on December 4, 2017.

    Recall TheNewsGuru had yesterday reported that the federal government says it will source for N8 billion within five weeks to pay the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said this at a resolution reached after a reconciliation meeting with the Non-Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities in Abuja.

    The resolution was jointly signed by Mr. Ngige, NAAT President, Sani Suleiman, NASU General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, SSANU President Samson Ugwoke and Anthony Anwukah, Minister of State for Education.

    Ngige, also said part of the eight billion would also be used to pay members of the Academic Staff Universities (ASUU), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and the University of llorin (UNILORIN), who were not paid at the last disbursement.

    He also said that the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission was to rework the December 15 Call Circular on University Staff Schools.

  • Varsity holds proposal, grant writing workshop

    Mountain Top University has announced it will hold a three-day proposal and grant writing workshop from Tuesday the 17th of April to Thursday the 19th of April 2018.

    TheNewsGuru reports the venue for the three-day workshop is at the College of Basic and Applied Sciences (CBAS) Big Lecture Hall of Mountain Top University (MTU), KM 12, Lagos Ibadan, Expressway, Ogun State.

    In a statement signed by the Head of Department of Biological Sciences and Chairman LOC of the three-day proposal and grant writing workshop, Dr. Adesina Adeiga, the foremost institution of learning said the workshop, with registration fee of N35,000, is saddled with the objective of imparting knowledge of proposal writing skills on young academics that have flare for grant seeking.

    “It is also to give the would-be participants the opportunity to have a one-on-one interaction with academic scholars that have secured research grants,” the statement added.

    Mountain Top University is an institution established with a mandate to transform and rejuvenate the socio-economic and political ethos of the nation.

    While Prof. Elijah Ayolabi, a Professor of Geophysics and Vice-Chancellor, Mountain Top University is the Chief Host, Prof. Amos Akinwande, a Professor of Biochemistry is the Dean, College of Basic and Applied Sciences.