IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION AND ITS GROWING PROFILE AMIDST CRITICISM

Ignatius Ajuru University of Education also known as IAUE was previously Rivers State College of Education from June 1971- October 2009. The school was established in 1971 after the Rivers State Government faced a shortage of trained teachers for post-primary education. However, the school gain the status of a university in 2009 under the administration of His Excellency, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. Today, the university offers undergraduate and postgraduate education across its six faculties. Since its inception as a university, the school has attracted students from far and near, including those from the diaspora like Ghana, Guinea, Benin Republic, and many other African countries who apply to study various programs - B.A, B.ED, PGD, M.A, M.Sc, MPhil and PhD. In addition to that, the school currently has non-African students via its online program at the school's Institute for Distance Learning, under the leadership of Professor Kontein Trinya of the English and Communication Art department, as its director.
Like other universities in Nigeria, the school has a time frame of four (4) years for undergraduate programs. For Post Graduate Diplomas (PGD, PGDE, PGDL) and Masters, the duration is twelve (12) months for full-time studies and eighteen (18) months for part-time students. The same applies to Mphil candidates, while PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) students are expected to spend thirty-six (36) months for those in full-time programs, and those in part-time have a duration of forty-eight (48) months.
The beauty of the school is that, it has an organized postgraduate workforce where examinations are done unanimously, and results are released on time which is contrary to what obtains in other schools, where each department decides when to take their examinations, and when to submit results. More so, the school has an organized feedback and monitoring system via the various departmental heads and coordinators of the PG program at the departmental level where postgraduate students report, to replace supervisors assigned to them, if their theses and dissertations are not given serious attention, that may lead to delays or, exceeding the given time frame by the school. Above all, there are regular departmental meetings with postgraduate students and heads of departments, and departmental PG coordinators which is the reason for students to complete their programs at the stipulated time by the school.
Sadly, the school has come under serious criticism recently for graduating postgraduate students on scheduled time. And most of these critics are frustrated PG students from other institutions. Thus, they believe that you must spend extra or unlimited years or "go through hell", to acquire a postgraduate degree in Nigeria. Funny enough, these same people celebrate their brothers and sister who travel abroad to acquire the same degrees within stipulated time frames.
Despite the criticism, the school has kept to its promise of unmasking the myth behind post-studies in Nigeria. It has continued to break that jinx of spending extra years in the quest to acquire postgraduate degrees in Nigeria. No wonder, students from neighboring institutions abandon their studies to begin fresh journeys in the school. Only recently, some of these institutions that see postgraduate studies as ‘Gates of Jericho” have started graduating students on due time because of candidates’ scarcity and the fact that some of their lecturers and non-academic staff have also started leaving their own citadels to IAUE, to pursue post-graduate degrees.
It is evidenced from the foregoing, that schools that delay students for unlimited years do so out of sheer wickedness and has nothing to do with the integrity of the school. Secondly, lack of an organized system where the post-graduate school timetable is strictly followed. Thirdly, poor monitoring system where students can report to change supervisors who deliberately delay students.
Therefore, it should be noted that IAUE does not just dish out certificates but to deserving graduates. I must acknowledge the fact that there are sharp practices in every institution, thus, IAUE is not left out in that regard.
I, therefore, encourage those aspiring to pursue post-graduate studies to visit the university at Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, or search the school online to start their post-graduate journey. And to our critics, we appreciate your feedback because it is helping us to improve and compete globally.

Mr. Ayebanoa Timibofa is completing his PhD in "Environmental Literature", with a specialization in "Medical Humanities" at IAUE.

If all you said is through. Then I have found a school for my masters programs.