The administrative seat of the Federal Polytechnic, Ukana, Akwa Ibom, will move to its permanent campus in 2021.
The Rector of the institution, Dr Uduak Ukekpe, disclosed this on Thursday in Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area, when he took newsmen on a tour of ongoing projects in the school, to mark his second year as the rector.
Ukekpe said 80 per cent of ongoing projects in the institution’s permanent campus was sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
He said that in June 2021 academic activities might likely resume at the permanent campus.
He disclosed that eight new academic programmes, including Computer Engineering, Survey, Accounting, Business Administration, Civil Engineering, Electrical/ Electronics Engineering would be added to the already existing two programmes, Statistics and Computer Science.
The rector said that the new programmes would likely kick-off at the permanent campus.
He said that the polytechnic currently has 85 students due to the carrying capacity of the institution.
Ukekpe said that the school could not admit more than the carrying capacity prescribed by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), noting that the admission capacity in Computer Science had been met but not in Statistics.
“By next year we will be good to go for the engineering programmes. Some of the equipment have been installed.
“When I came in, there was no access road, there were no buildings that were near completion. No contractor was on site.
“We are targeting eight more courses. We have manpower on ground but it is not adequate. We will be employing if they lift the embargo by next year. What stopped the process was the embargo placed on employment at the outbreak of COVID-19.
“Eighty per cent of the projects you have seen here is as a result of TETFUND intervention. I want to thank TETFUND; we are doing our best to attract more TETFUND interventions where possible,” Ukekpe said.
On the issue of cultism, the rector said there was no reported case of cultism as students have been warned against it.
Ukekpe dismissed insinuations about the host community was encroaching into the institution’s land.
He said that the community donated the permanent site to the polytechnic and the relationship between them was cordial. (NAN)
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