Prof. Tafah Splits University of Bamenda to Seven Divisions of NW

By FC Junior

The University of Bamenda, UBa, one of the newly created state universities in Cameroon is in the news again. A document captioned “The University of Bamenda Strategic Development Plan 2014-2018” (University of the Future) has met sharp criticism from the public. Public opinion is the North West Region is worried over this document which recommends several options in organizing and structuring of the University of Bamenda to function with collegial system whereby the university establishments are grouped under functional colleges. Critical minds are hard on the point that the Vice Chancellery placed under Prof. Edukat Tafah intends to create a college of Arts and Culture in Santa, and the college of Geological and Earth Sciences at Nyos (under Boyo Division). Expressionists are wondering whether Nyos is already safer for people to live there and not to talk of a college of Geological and Earth Sciences. As for the case of Santa, another school of thought is very bitter about the proposal. Yet impressionists say the distribution was poorly done given that Donga Mantung Division which has the enough land to offer and space would have hosted the Planning and Design, not Mankon. This is so because Nkambe has few hotels whereas Bamenda has the highest number of hotels. The point is that students will have it vry difficult to carryout their research in Nkambe due to the lack of hotels and restaurants. “How and where will students do the internship”, elite questioned. However, the College of Planning and Design would have been better for Nkambe given the available infrastructure. Another headache is that the University of Bamenda lacks lecturers yet Prof. Educate and co and hurriedly carrying to decentralize.

Henceforth, each college shall have faculties, schools, institutes and departments headed respectively by Provost, Deans, Directors and heads of academic and professional departments. Accordingly, the strategic and development plan also proposes an option to locate each University college and components on separate sites, locate related colleges on one Campus, locate a campus in each Division of the North West Region and locate the Vice Chancellery and Central offices on the main campus.

According to the proposal that was submitted to the senate of the University of Bamenda, the following programmes were seemingly approved.

Approved Programmes

·         College of Educational Sciences and Management: Bambili

HTTC, HTTTC, Educational Science, Education Planning, Education Administration, University Administration and Management, Postgraduate school of education

·         College of Science: Bambili

Natural Sciences, Applied Sciences, and Postgraduate school of Natural and Applied Sciences

·         College of Health Sciences and Medicine: Bambili

Tropical Medicine, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Dentistry, Ophthalmology, Postgraduate research in Tropical medicine.

·         College of Technology: Bambili

·         College of Social Sciences and Management: Bambili

HICM, Economics and Management Sciences, Law and Political Sciences, Postgraduate school of social sciences and management

College of Arts and Culture: Santa

Performing arts, languages, linguistics, history, postgraduate school of arts and culture

Proposed Programmes

College of Planning and Design: Mankon

·         Faculty of Planning and Development Studies

Department of Urban Development planning, department of regional development planning, department of rural development planning, and, department of transportation planning.

·         Faculty of Environment Design

Department of architecture, landscape design, department of urban design, department of network design

·         Faculty of Land Economics and Management

Department of land economics, department of real estate management, department of quantity survey, property valuation, land law and administration

·         Faculty of Environment Studies and Engineering

Environment sciences, environment engineering

·         Faculty of Engineering

Department of civil engineering, department of building construction and materials, department hydrologic and engineering, department of electronic engineering, department of mechanical engineering, department of industrial engineering.

·         Faculty of Geomatics(Surveying) and Geo-spatial studies

Engineering surveying, geographic information system, photogrammetry, cartography and visualization, hydrographic surveying, mine surveying and geodetic surveying

College of Information and Communication Science and Engineering

·         Faculty of Information and Communication Engineering

Information and communication sciences, telecommunication engineering, computer science, management and maintenance of information and communication technology

College of Agriculture and Rural Development: Wum- Menchum 

·         Faculty of Agriculture and Rural Development

Agricultural sciences, rural engineering, community development, photo-sanitary sciences, plant sciences, agronomy, agricultural production, agricultural business and marketing, agricultural infrastructure and technology

College of Veterinary and Livestock Production: Jakiri-Bui

·         Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Livestock Production

Veterinary sciences, veterinary pharmacy and pharmacology, livestock production science and technology, livestock infrastructure and technology

College of Natural Resources Management and Conservation: Mbengwi-Momo

·         Faculty of Forest and Natural Resource Management, and Conservation

Forestry management, natural resource management and conservation, wildlife management and protection, agro-forestry, water resource management, inland fisheries.

College of Geological and Earth Sciences: Nyos Boyo

·         Faculty Geological and Earth Sciences

Earth Sciences, geological sciences and environment

College of Tourism and Leisure: Nkambe, Donga Mantung Division

·         Faculty of Tourism and Leisure Management

Tourism and Leisure planning, tourism and leisure management, Tourism and leisure infrastructure and facilities, Hotel management, eco-tourism development and management

College of Craft and Textile: Ndop, Ngoketunjia

·         Faculty of Craft and Textile

Sculpture, textile

Postgraduate Schools

Social Sciences: Bambili, Administration and management sciences: Bambili, Natural Sciences: Bambili, Health sciences, Veterinary sciences, Applied Sciences: Bambili, Applied Technology: Mankon, Planning and Developmnt: Mankon. 

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