The acting Vice-Chancellor of Kaduna State University, KASU, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa says the institution will reopen on July 13, to enable its final year students to write their examinations and graduate.
Mr Ashafa, who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna on Friday, added that the state government plans to provide foreign scholarships to students with outstanding Cumulative Grade Point Average, CGPA.
He said that the students, in substantial numbers, upon graduation, would be sent abroad for their masters’ degree.
The VC added that the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two African universities, where the students would be admitted.
He said that the admission processes would be closed in September and the students had not written their second semester examination because of the protracted industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
“As parents, we thought that we should fast track the resumption process so that the students can write their examinations, obtain their results, and submit to the scholarship board to process their admissions,” he said.
He said that the school management have resolved, after a meeting with critical managers of the university, to reopen on July 13, with the second semester examination scheduled to commence July 25.
The VC explained that critical managers of the university, which include Deans and HODs shoulder the affairs of teaching and research in the university.
“The Deans and HODs are the critical managers of the university whose subordinates will have to be engaged to conduct the examination, supervise, and process the results.
“It is on this basis we are confident that we will be able to convince the state government to pay staff salaries that have been withheld,” he said.
He appealed to the leadership of ASUU, KASU branch, to understand with the university for the sake of the students, so that they can graduate and benefit from the available opportunity for foreign scholarships.
Mr Ashafa recalled that the previous management of the university had attempted a dialogue with the leadership of the university’s chapter of ASUU but yielded no result because of the frosty relationship.
He revealed that the current management had directed that the query issues to some executive members of the union should be withdrawn.
The VC, on behalf of the management and the university Senate, apologised to the leadership of ASUU over the incident.
He also called on the students to return to school and continue with their studies, adding that no students would be prevented from writing examinations on account of failure to pay school fees.
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