Professor David Ker, the vice chancellor of Veritas
University, spoke to a group of journalists on the achievements of the
university since its inception in 2008.
Veritas University was founded by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria through a resolution given at its March 2002 meeting in Abuja. The university was established in response to the felt need for a university that would provide high quality tertiary education according to the noble tradition of the Catholic Church.
Provisional license for operation was granted by the National Universities Commission on May 7, 2007. The permanent site of the university is located in Bwari Area Council of Abuja.
The university opened its gates to its first set of students in October 2008 at its take- off site in Obehie, Abia State. It will interest you to know that our first set of students have written their final examinations and completed all requirements for graduation.
So far how many programmes have been accredited?
NUC recently granted full accreditation to all the nine programmes offered by our university at the commission’s first accreditation visit to the university. The programmes are accounting, applied microbiology, economics, English and literary studies, history and international relations. Others are industrial chemistry, physics and electronics, marketing and advertising, and political science and diplomacy.
What is your target?
The determination of all in the Veritas University community is to make the university rank among the top universities in Nigeria. Though there are more than 117 universities in Nigeria, we plan to place our university among the top 10.
How do you wish to achieve this?
The full accreditation of all programmes offered by the university is the key to the aim of ranking top in the country. The record is unprecedented as no university in Nigeria has ever got full accreditation in all its programmes at the first National Universities Commission’s visit.
Also, information communications technology is one of the strong points of the institution to achieving this aim. All the students have their laptops as well as connected to the school library. This is indispensable to their learning experience. Besides, our library gives students and staff access to the world’s biggest collections of biomedical and health literature, Agora Database which provides a collection of 1900 journals in all fields.
We also have database for Oxford reference, business source complete, academic source complete, JSTOR, National Virtual Library, amongst others.
How would you rate your students in terms of discipline?
Abia State government, our host has commended Veritas University for having the most disciplined set of students in the country and playing a major role in the human resources development of the nation. Since the focus in all universities is on character and learning, we are excited to get full marks in these key areas in our early years.
Which of the systems does the school operate?
We operate a collegiate system. We have two colleges – the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, NAS, and the College of Management, Social Sciences, Arts and Theology, MSAT, spread across these colleges are six departments and nine degree programmes that have been fully accredited by the National Universities Commission, NUC.
There is this opinion held in many quarters that education at private universities is very expensive. What are your fees like?
We are not doing badly. Our fees are moderate compared to other private universities.
What was the experience like during the height of kidnapping in Abia?
We went through a period in 2010. My predecessor was kidnapped alongside other principal officers of the school. The success of the peace we record is part of the military base located within the vicinity of the university.
What about the proposed relocation of the university to Abuja?
The sod-turning and official foundation laying ceremony of the permanent site took place at the main campus in Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja on March 1, 2012. The colourful ceremony was performed by the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama who was accompanied by the Chancellor of the University, Archbishop John Onaiyekan and the pro-chancellor, Archbishop Anthony Obinna in addition to nearly 50 bishops.
We plan to relocate to Abuja in the 2013/ 2014 academic session which will commence in October 2013.
What would happen to this campus when you finally relocate to Abuja?
When we leave, my proprietors will make the appropriate announcements.
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