Following the successful inauguration of the proposed implementation Committee of the ICT University of Nigeria (ICTUN) on Thursday in Abuja, the Minister of Communications, Barr Adebayo Shittu has charged the members to turn in report within six weeks so that real take off can begin.
In his remarks during the inauguration, he said “My expectations at the end of the assignment of this Committee would be an extensive business case for this project with details such as: A very robust Curriculum of the proposed ICT University of Nigeria; DBI’s facilities utilization including upgrade and expansion where necessary; and Proposed faculty members for the University including resource persons.
“Other issues include a Framework for collaboration between the university and the industry on one hand and between the university and global industry giants; A sustainable PPP Model for funding the University; and, Regulations and standards for the proposed university.
While assuring you that all efforts are already in top gear to appoint both an Acting Vice-Chancellor and an Acting Registrar for the University within the next few weeks, he revealed that “copies of a draft bill for the consideration of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and ultimate transmission to the National Assembly for passage into law would be circulated to members of this Committee for your inputs.
Continuing, he revealed that “Federal Government has also secured necessary endorsements from relevant stakeholders both within and outside of government including global leaders in the ICT industry such as CISCO, FACEBOOK, HUAWEI, MTN, D-LINKS, GLOBACOM, LENOVO, SAMSUNG, APPLE, SIEMENS – NORTEL, INTEL, MOTOROLA, ERICSSON, DELL, HP, ZTE and IBM. These industry giants have expressed their unequivocal support for this project with pledges in the provision of faculty, library content, syllabus, logistics, including funds towards the realization of the ICT University of Nigeria. In other words, we shall be partnering with some of these globally-acknowledged ICT giants to run the ICT UNIVERSITY of NIGERIA on a public-private partnership basis”.
According to him, “The University would offer varieties of programmes aimed at providing specialist knowledge and expertise required for a professional career in the broad field of Information Communication Technology such as Telecommunications, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, Robotic embedded systems, Computer forensics, digital media and Entertainment technology. The University would also be expected to offer skills development programmes in emerging and transformational technologies such as Cloud Computing and Big Data. It is expected that each of the six Campuses of the present DBI would be transformed into a centre of technological excellence in specific areas of ICT. Teaching experience in the new university should include a blend of theory, analysis, innovation and hands-on activities, such as project based learning and live industry-led projects.
Establishment of a specialized ICT University is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. Such institutions located around the globe include the Multimedia University of Malaysia; IT University of Gutenberg, Sweden; IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark;the Informatics Institute in Singapore; University of Information Technology and Management, Poland; Jaypee University of Information Technologies, India; Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Uzbekistan; Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China; and the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
It is hoped that members would bring their respective experiences and knowledge and wisdom to bear on the final draft of the bill.
