The Registrar, Ahman Patigi University, Alh. Hammed Olufadi has said the tuition fee in the institution is the cheapest among both private and public universities in the country.
Olufadi in this interview with our editor, Mike Adeyemi, affirmed that the passion for human capital development was the nucleus to which the founder established the citadel of learning, and not for profit making, saying within a short period, the university has become a cynosure of all eyes among it peers in Nigeria.
The eloquent Registrar however, said accessibility to education at Ahman Patigi University is global, as the school presently has international students. He added that the institution has students work scheme, where students work while in school and get paid, a leeway to parent’s burden. Excerpts;
How did you emerge the Registrar of this University?
Thank you. It’s funny in a way that I became the Registrar because I have this laid back attitude to material things.
We had our initial registrar who left after a year. We had acting registrar too. One day ,the Proprietor, Hon. Aliyu Ahman Patigi in consultation with the Council called me to be the Registrar of the university. That was how I became the Registrar of the University.
How has been the job so far?
It has been hectic. This is because when I assumed office, we had no system in place and the work of Registrar cuts across academics and administration. I had to balance the two, trying to set up the system in the Registry such that the operation between the registry and the academia under the Vice Chancellor can be smooth.
We have to look at the action process, and make sure it is seamless. We have to look at the Students Affairs to make sure that between the office of Students Affairs, we have complete documentation of students. We also have to relate with students and parents. We have to ensure that the students are comfortable in their hostels and off campus.
This is so because when they come, we became their parents and we are responsible for everything they do. And we have to ensure that we encourage the students to do what is needful so that they can have wise mind and skilled hands. So it is not just the education thing you are taught in the class. We are also trying to teach them that there is more to education than what you are being taught in the class.
So, it became our slogan; ‘wise mind, skilled hands.’ We are building on that to ensure that our students are first class and they become employers of labour instead of employee after their graduation.
When was Ahman Patigi University established, and its mission?
That is a fantastic question. The university was established ten years ago and like I said earlier, we started with the National University Commission, (NUC) accredited it to run 15 programmes at the beginning.
To God be the glory, within a very short time, we have over 600 students. Just last December, NUC came back here for resource verification and approved another 15 programmes making it 30 programmes. That is both Humanity, Management, Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Computer.
We are also given Faculty of Education which we believe is the most needed Faculty in Kwara North. This is because most of their students study education. They love education courses. That is why we did our best to have that Faculty.
By September, we will start to run Faculty of Health Science, where we will be having Nurses, Medical Science Laboratory, Physiotherapy, Anatomy, Public Health and Physiology. That is three programmes in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The University within short period is already having about 36 programmes under four faculties. To God be the glory, the initial three years that the Nigerian University Commission gave us for temporary licensing has elapsed and they have come to regularize our licence just about a week ago, which means anytime soon, we can be granted permanent license to run. When they came, they were impressed with the facilities they met on ground.
Are you getting the desired results relatively to the university’s gazette?
Yes! I am very happy that we have this Honorable from Osun State that sponsored 76 students in our university. I just wish other representatives of the people do same.
It doesn’t have to be at Ahman Patigi University because Human Capital Development is the key basis for development, and believe me,we gave him some leeway. I love what he did and I am using this opportunity to call on, especially all our representatives in Kwara State to key in and do the same thing.
We have this man too, Makama of Lafiagi. He is a fantastic person. He sponsored about 12 students into our school. I implore others to do that. Things are hard, most parents cannot afford school fees, even if it is N100, some parents cannot afford it.
But you know that when you train people in the society, it is to our own advantage because the untrained children of today will continue to be a stumbling block to our trained children tomorrow.
So my advise to the affluent in the society is to key into such initiatives. By next year, we will have the first set of our graduates.
What is delaying the accreditation of Faculty of Law and Medicine?
We have not started that. Faculty of Medicine cannot start until about after ten years. But the Health Sciences like I said earlier will start by September this year.
Like you know, every man or woman want to become a Nurse or Medical Science lab, because of the market value. We cannot also start the Law Faculty immediately. According to NUC rules, there is a number of years to start.
How affordable is the tuition fee of Ahman Patigi University for common man?
Everybody should be grateful to God and the founder. Among the private universities in this country, our tuition fee is one of the lowest. I can give you an example.
If you study Microbiology that is the most expensive at Ahman Patigi University, the school fees is N495, 000. But this is the caveat. The Chairman, that is, the founder said; if you are from North Central Nigeria like, Niger State, Kwara State, Kogi State, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and the FCT, you pay half of the tuition fee.
It is not discrimination, but just to encourage the people, especially if you are Nupe speaking, that one too is different. Instead of paying 50 per cent of tuition cost, you will pay 25 per cent and he pays the 75 per cent. So he has passion for Human Capital Development.
If you are from outside North-Central zone,you pay N495,000. How many private universities do that? I know of a private university in this country that charges about N600,000 for BSc Computer Science. But at Ahman Patigi University, if you are from the North Central, you pay N200, 000 plus. So the school fees is affordable.
In fact almost all public universities charge that. It is because of the passion our founder has for human capital development and his interest in seeing the North Central zone well positioned education wise that he made such sacrifice. To God be the glory, we have students from almost all North Central states. We even have students outside the country and across the globe.
In a nutshell, your tuition is affordable?
Yes, very very affordable. In fact it is one of the cheapest among private universities and some public universities combined in Nigeria.
Has postgraduate classes started?
Postgraduate courses also, just like medical science can’t be run until after ten years. That is the NUC rule. We already have plan and template for it once it is time.
Are there enough facilities to house your students?
For a new university, I will tell you that we have ten blocks that can house about 64 students each. Which means on the average, we can house 640 students conveniently and we intend to make more.
Here in Patigi, we have expansive landscape. We have adequate accommodation for our students. The price of our hostels is very affordable too. All around,we have off campus accommodation.
Are there ICT centers in the school?
Yes, we have and we are operating e-Library. In the library, we have about 45 computers. If we decide not to be computer literate in the school, it means the Faculty of Science where we have BSc computer, BSc cyber security, BSc software Engineering, is as useless as not having them.
So because of that, the founder invested a lot on ICT in the school. You will be surprised that our Vice Chancellor is a Professor of Computer Science. Ordinarily if we don’t have it before, we must have it now.
How would you rate the academic performance of your students?
I would first of all give kudos to our lecturers. As a university situated in a rural area in Kwara North, one would think students would just go there to study and graduate. But what will it look like if they cannot defend their certificates..
We are trying to put system in place to ensure things work seamlessly, so that when our students leave the school, they will be different from what they were before coming here. We ensured that there are qualified lecturers to teach them.
These qualified lecturers impart qualified education to our students, not just classroom education like I said , ‘Wise mind,skilled hands.’ We use ICT to teach them, we take them to the farm, we take them to our bakery. We have what we called students work scheme, where students work while in school and get paid. So it is not all the time they wait for their parents to send money to them.
What do you do with the bread produced in the university?
We sell it out. It is commercialised. The name of our bread is Ahman Patigi University Bread (APU-Bread). Our bread is available for sale to people in the Kwara North axis. We have fish pond and farm where we teach our students the value chain. As of today, our students population is over 600.
How accessible is the university for prospective students?
Accessibility to education at Ahman Patigi University is global. You won’t believe that we have students from Swaziland here. This is so because we are ICT compliant.
Our portal is easy to access. You can register anywhere across the world. We have had enquiries from Benin Republic. They want to study in Nigeria here. So accessibility, we don’t have problem. We are virtual and we have satellite campuses across Nigeria.
For example, we signed Memorandum of Understanding with Muideen College of Education. We have campus in Iwo, Abeokuta, Ibadan. We have Top up programs for HND holders too. We have lecture classes in our liaison office in Ilorin. If you are in Osun, go to Iwo. You can attend classes there.
If you live in Oyo, go to Ibadan. Ahman Patigi University is responsible for your studentship. You will come and do your matriculation and graduation here in Patigi before taking your lectures at the designated centres. We will ensure that we monitor you. So accessibility is guaranteed.
We offer admission to the Direct Entry students too. Even if you have NCE and you don’t want to be a teacher, you can come here to study computer science.
What legacy would you want the university to remember you for at the expiration of your term as Registrar?
I want to be remembered as a registrar who came, who saw, invented and left a lot of seamless lasting legacy of administration within the academia, the community, the students and the staff of the university. A legacy of someone who instilled a system.