The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Aliyu Shugaba, says the institution’s refusal to close down at the peak of Boko Haram insurgency has attracted a N2 billion distance learning project.

The project, courtesy of philanthropist and founder of Oriental Energy Resources, Muhammad Idimi, has a state-of-the-art facility among other things.

Appreciating Mr Idimi for the project, the vice-chancellor said, “We are moving on as a university and we are at our best now.”

Recounting the school’s ordeal at the heat of the insurgency, the vice-chancellor said the number of applications for admission dropped to as low as 3000 per session.

“The early years of insurgency affected the number of applications received. We were used to receiving applications in tens of thousands.

“However, when the insurgency started between 2010 and 2011 session to 2013 and 2014 sessions, the applications for admission received both in terms of UTME and Direct Entry reduced to below 3000.

“By 2014 and 2015 session and 2016 session, however, we received 60,000 applications and at that time our admission quota was only about 8,100.

“By 2017 and 2018, admission request was almost 80,000 and our admission quota had increased to about 10,000.

“The admission quota is now 11,000 but our applications have always been in the neighbourhood of 70,000 and 80,000 requests per admission,” he said.

Mr Shugaba said the number of collaborations with local and foreign universities has improved too. “We have collaboration with universities in Malaysia, Thailand, China and most of the Asian countries as well as the UK and U.S.”

He said in spite of the challenges, UNIMAID has the highest student population of about 75,000, “including undergraduate, postgraduate and distance learning.”

“Ahmadu Bello University is tracking us with about 65,000 student population,” he said.

(NAN)