Aloysius Attah and Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
A total of 367 academic staff of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka have been promoted to the ranks of readers and professors in the last five years.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, disclosed this while presenting his address at the 13th convocation ceremony of the university where 6,500 graduates were conferred with first degrees for the 2017/2018 academic session.
Ahaneku who is winding up his tenure as the vice chancellor by the first week of June said the promotions were higher than any other period in the history of the university, without lowering standards.
He said the on-time appraisal and promotion of the non-teaching staff equally received due attention with eight non-teaching staff promoted to deputy positions while 2,802 senior non-teaching staff and 1,337 junior staff were also promoted within the same period.
The vice-chancellor said his administration had transformed the university to a world- class standard in the area of learning, research and infrastructure in line with his five-point agenda when he sought for the office.
He said his administration also placed great emphasis on research as universities are known and ranked all over the world by the volume and quality of research emanating from them.
He disclosed that although the efforts of the upgraded Directorate of Research Innovation and University-Industry Relations, the university had succeeded in patenting two products – automotive brake pads using kaolin as frictional material and bio-fertiliser composition.
Chancellor of the university, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, Gbong Gwom Jo’s, charged the graduands to use the knowledge, skills and values they had imbibed from the university to make a positive difference in the society.