By Chuka Nnabuife
IN A world of very quick technological changes, there are high chances that before a young person ends the tenure of a half-decade course in university, the global trends that informed his or her interest in the field of study may have been overtaken. Hence a need for advanced study or at least broadened learning field.
Given the fast-paced dynamism of contemporary world, there is a necessity for radical positive changes in all endeavors of humanity, especially, education. This, the Vice Chancellor of Peter University, in Anambra State, Prof. Emmanuel Chukwuemenam Umezinwa, has noted. He deems the rapid advances in technology and researches that have led to unprecedented stretches of the bounds of human knowledge as a healthy challenge to academic scholars, research institutes and universities.
Conscious of the development that ensures that no area of study, arguably, remains as it is for half a decade, in Peter University, the curriculum is arranged in a way that students are exposed to several contemporarily-relevant skills and activities while they are engaged in their primary courses.
“The vision of Peter University is to be “a world-class university renowned for production of self-reliant, globally-competitive graduates with altruistic morals.””
Hence such fields of study as information communication technology (ICT) is made relevant in every student’s study. Similarly, professional production skills or experiences in vital service skill sets that a young person would need as graduate to excel in society are encouraged.
Addressing undergraduates of the university, recently, the don made the academic vision and mission of the school clear. He emphasised the vital purpose of ICT orientations in the university, while noting that it is not just embracing the modern technology for its sake rather it is to enable them play effectively in the global village which the world has become.
To meet the challenge, the students must acquire requisite skills in competitively diverse interests.
“That is why”, he told the students, “none of you will graduate here without clear evidence of having acquired at least four self-reliant skills. With your cooperation, upon graduation, you shall be so confident in yourself that you shall neither know timidity nor suffer any complex before any human being or organisation.”
Beyond having several relevant skills, Rev. Fr. Umezinwa noted that a vital equipment in the fast-evolving contemporary world is an open mind that is always curious to learn more about what is happening around it. He told the undergrads that it is the duty of academics of this era “to, in the words of Cardinal Newman, expand your mind, make you have hunger for knowledge but it will not stop there. We shall, with your cooperation, realise the nature of the fast-changing society. Some programs today offered in universities become obsolete by the time students graduate. We must adapt to these changes with ease. Therefore, graduation at Peter University will be impossible without evidence of four other skills out of which one must be in ICT. It will be difficult to graduate in business and management areas without a registered start-up to your name.”
Prof. Umezinwa’s academic response to an increasingly unpredictable world of dazzling changes is a radical scholarship that tries dutifully to stay ahead the pace of trends.
