Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Professor Hayward Mafuyai on Thursday, November 6, 2014, visited the University of Salford, Manchester, United Kingdom where three lecturers of the university are currently undertaking postgraduate studies in various disciplines.
Professor Mafuyai paid the visit to have first-hand knowledge of the lecturers’ research progress and to encourage them towards achieving the goal for which the university had sponsored them abroad.
The lecturers – Taye Obateru and Godfrey Danaan (Mass Communication Department and PhD research students) and Mangai Mafuyai (Nursing Department and Msc student) – were on hand at the Peel Campus of the university to receive him.
They took turns to brief the Vice Chancellor on the progress of their studies pledging that they would complete the courses within the stipulated time and return to the university to add value to teaching, research and community service in Nigeria.
The lecturers expressed appreciation to the University of Jos for approving their studies at the University of Salford and the privilege of benefitting from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) scholarship.
They described the visit by the Vice Chancellor as a rare privilege and thanked him for initiating and implementing the MoU establishing cooperation between both institutions in the areas of staff development, exchanges and research activities.
During the three-hour interaction with the staff on training in the postgraduate research office in the Maxwell Building, Professor Mafuyai said the University of Jos was committed to the MoU and would ensure that staff on training at the University of Salford and elsewhere were given the needed support in their career development.
He noted that the MoU with the University of Salford was borne out of the University of Jos management’s desire to establish a network that would encourage scholarship between staff and students of the university and world class researchers with a view to building capacity for industry. According to him, the initiative would further place the university on the world map as an ivory tower.
It was a home coming for Professor Mafuyai who is alumnus of the University of Salford where he obtained his PhD over two decades ago, as he went the campus with his hosts to see the changes that had taken place since he graduated.
The Vice Chancellor also had a meeting with the International Students Advisor of the University of Salford, Dr. John MacKenzie, who expressed delight that the staff of the University of Jos on studies had adapted to the Salford environment and were working hard in their various research areas. The visit was rounded off with lunch at the cafeteria of the Maxwell Building.
It would be recalled that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Vice Chancellors of the institutions, Professor Hayward Babale Mafuyai and Professor Martin Hall in 2013, to encourage direct contact and cooperation between the institutions’ faculty and administrative staff, including those of relevant internal Schools and Universities’ Research Centres.
Both institutions agreed to pursue joint research activities; develop activities in the delivery of the University of Salford programme; joint teaching and development of new degree and training programmes; visits by and exchange of staff and graduate students for research, among others.
