Preamble

Apart from the academic departments in the direct teaching units, the University has academic support units that help to enrich the curricula. Such units help to develop the student in becoming a total man that is well equipped to face the challenges of the world outside the University environment. The units help to widen the horizon of the student beyond his area of specialization.

 General Studies Unit

The University has a General Studies Unit, set up as a veritable instrument for inculcating the spirit of self-reliance in the students. The major objectives of the Unit are:

i. Fostering the development of communication skills among students; and

ii. Helping students to acquire the basic skills required for existence in a modern society.

The Unit, which is headed by a Coordinator, is charged with the responsibility of coordinating all activities relating to General Studies courses.

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

A functional and service-oriented library should be the largest single resource of a university. Its pride of place should be reflected both in its architecture and collection of books and journals. The University of Abuja does not have such an ideal library for now. The existing library, which has a sitting capacity for 200 readers, 19,866 volumes and 540 serials, is headed by the University Librarian and has the following divisions:

1. Readers Services

2. Technical Services

3. Law Library and Serials

It has local and foreign publications including materials for

research and postgraduate studies. The Library currently renders

 the following services:

1. Loan services to staff;

2. Reference service to staff and students;

3. Referral service to staff and students;

4. Photocopying services;

5. Library orientation for new students;

6. Teaching of the use of library as part of General Studies Programme for fresh students;

7. Individualized guidance services to students; and

8. Materials not available in the library are obtained from other libraries through Inter- library Cooperation.

 The University will build another library that will be accessible from most parts of the campus, particularly from the academic areas. It should have about 200,000 volumes and a sitting capacity for 3,000 users at a time. The new library building should have the following areas:

1. Administrative and technical services areas, used exclusively by library staff in acquisition, cataloguing processing, reprographic services, etc;

2. Joint areas used by readers as well as library staff for catalogues, bibliographies, display areas, etc;

3. Public areas used freely by all library users, including book stacks and reading areas; and

4. Restricted public areas open to the library users subject to control to house special collections, documents, microfilms, maps, reserved books areas, etc.

The new library building should be architecturally flexible to ensure efficiency and possible future expansion.

The University has also initiated action towards opening a library at the Centre for Distance Learning and Continuing Education. The intention is to eventually establish for the Centre, an electronic library for the benefit of the entire University community with access to other library services worldwide. In the meantime, the Centre enjoys facility provided by the British Council Mobile Library service once a month, usually the first Friday of every month.

Dr. Ekoja

University Librarian

 Laboratories and Workshops

The University of Abuja presently runs three laboratories in the Faculty of Science and a Language Laboratory in   the Faculty of Arts.  The University will provide adequate laboratory and workshop spaces for teaching and research as it expands its academic disciplines.  This will be done within the NUC stipulated minimum guidelines for each academic discipline.

  Educational Technology Centre

The University will establish an Educational Technology Centre that will provide support services for the teaching process. It will produce teaching and learning materials and in consultation with the teaching staff, device means of implementing new teaching methods. The Centre will be well equipped for this purpose. It will have the following items among others: television production equipment, slide production equipment, photographic equipment as well as facilities for equipment maintenance. The Center will also be charged with the maintenance of all teaching and research equipment in the University and meeting all University needs in respect of slides, cassettes for audio and video, films, strips and slides.

 There is a mini-studio at the CDLCE, which is reasonably equipped for audio-visual recording. The emphasis of the CDLCE has been on audio recording of some lecture materials because of the high cost of video recordings. Students usually buy their tapes and send to the Centre for recorded lecture materials to be dubbed for them.

University Farm

The University will establish a farm that will not only have facilities in support of teaching and research but also serve as a commercial venture. It will serve as a practical training ground for students of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine and will be well equipped to meet the research needs of staff. In collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Engineering and the Faculties of Science, Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, it is expected that the Farm would be in a position to meet all the food requirements of the University community. The Farm shall also be in position to produce crops and animals in large quantities all the year round for sale so as to generate revenue for the University.

Botanical and Zoological Gardens

There will be Botanical and Zoological Gardens to serve as teaching support units for the Biological Sciences. The gardens will also serve as commercial recreational spots for all students, staff and visitors.

Student Industrial Works Experience Scheme (SIWES)

It will be compulsory for students in almost all the professional disciplines to participate in industrial attachment as a requirement for graduation. The scheme provides students the opportunity to apply theoretical principles to real life situation. It also prepares them for the world of work. A Unit will be established with the following responsibilities:

i.          Liaison with the National Universities Commission and Industrial Training Fund in all matters relating to SIWES;

ii.          Placing students in industries and other establishments;

iii.         Visiting and supervising students on industrial training;

iv.         Coordinating all other industrial training activities such as student work reports, student work seminars, general assessment and payment of industrial training allowances; and

v.          Fostering effective contacts and collaboration between the University and the industry.

University Teaching Hospital

The Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital is now the Teaching Hospital of the University of Abuja.  The hospital has a capacity of about 2500 beds and will provide training for medical students to create an academically upgraded medical environment for conducting quality health care and medical research.  The hospital has already distinguished itself in medical research and clinical cases and it extends its medical care to the whole community.  The primary objectives of the teaching hospital are:

1. To provide practical field training for the postgraduate and undergraduate students of medical training programmes;

2. To provide health care services to the local community; and

3. To conduct research in medical fields and services.

A Chief Medical Director responsible to a Board of Management handles the day-to-day administration of the hospital.

Veterinary Teaching Hospital

The University of Abuja will establish a University Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  The will provide training for veterinary medical students.  The hospital will also become a centre of excellence in veterinary medical research and clinical cases and extend its services to the whole community.  The primary objectives of the veterinary teaching hospital are:

i.   To provide practical field training for the postgraduate and undergraduate students of veterinary medical training programmes;

ii.   To provide veterinary care and services to the local community; and

iii.   To conduct research in veterinary medical fields and services.

A Chief Medical Director responsible to a Board of Management handles the day-to-day administration of the hospital.  The University Governing Council will appoint the Board of Management, while the Board of Management will make recommendation on the appointment of the Chief Medical Officer to the Governing Council for approval.

COMPUTER CENTRE

The University has set up, as a matter of priority, a Computer Centre that is well equipped to provide computing facilities to support teaching, research, consultancy and administrative activities for all Units in the University. Appropriate modern hardware and software as well as highly skilled personnel are being made available to the Centre to enable it meet the diverse needs of its customers. The Centre is charged with the responsibility of making the University community computer-literate. In addition, it will offer its services to commercial houses and private individuals and organizations in order to generate revenue. The Centre handles all activities relating to information and communication technology (ICT) of the University. These include INTERNET (provided through a VSAT) connectivity and support for the Nigerian Universities Network.

 The Centre for Distance Learning and Continuing Education is not left out of the ICT infrastructure. The centre is equipped with computers, VSATs. Almost all the activities of the centre are done online.

In support of the University Administration, the Computing Centre maintains and operates the computerized records of students. These records include personal information, and details of registrations, examinations and transcripts.

Training Programmes
The following training programmes are available:
- Computer Operations and Application (Covers Literacy, Windows  Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Word, Desktop publishing).
- Computer Application and Data Processing (Covers Literacy, Windows, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, CorelDraw, Microsoft Word and SPSS).
- Word Processing and Desktop Publishing (Covers Literacy,  Microsoft Word, PageMaker, CorelDraw).
- Computer Programming - languages taught include: C++, Visual dBase, Visual Basic, PASCAL, FORTRAN, COBOL, Visual C++ , Web Applications, etc.

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