Prof. Aliyu Shugaba, the Vice Chancellor, University of Maiduguri has revealed that the university’s Centre for Peace, Diplomatic and Development got 300,000 dollars grant from MacArthur Foundation to conduct researches.
Shugaba made this known at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja on Sunday.
He said that the university was engaging with the foundation to be able to conduct some research in the areas of peace and development.
According to him, there has been an internal funding from the university but it only allows the staff to be trained either within the university or outside the university.
“To go abroad, we have always relied on TETFund allocation for academic staff training and development for both masters and PhD programmes, where they are allowed on designated areas acceptable to the university senate.
“Also, individual staff efforts lead them to get sponsorship from donor agencies for scholarship on particular areas of research.
“But with the insecurity that has been happening in the region, many international organisations are finding better ways to assist the university to conduct research and other things.
“Also, our Centre for Peace, Diplomatic and Development studies was granted 300,000 dollars by MacArthur to be able to conduct some researches particularly researches that touch on peace and development,’’ he said.
The vice chancellor added that the Northeast Development Commission had also assisted the university in the area of curtailing violent extremism.
He said that other areas of funding supports from other international organisations to assist the institution to focus more and conduct research and development that would translate to the nation’s development were being explored.
According to him, the secret of being acknowledged in the areas of research is based on the right vision and mission of the university toward achieving glory and excellence.
“As a vice chancellor, we cannot afford to fail in that area. Now our own College of Medical Sciences has been designated earlier on since 1986 as Centre of Excellence.
“The faculty of law too has been a centre of excellence for the study of law.
“Recently, TETFund has injected money into our Centre of Arid Zone Studies to make it a centre of excellence for research in arid zone.
“So we will continue to look at all of these as the criteria and not to allow a situation where our own achievements are brought down by whatsoever consideration,’’ he said.
Shugaba also commended TETfund for helping in the upgrading of the institutions’ facilities and training of its manpower.
He said that this development had translated into the training of about 395 professors, adding that it was also training more manpower at the masters and PhD levels.