THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved that the Centre for Food Technology and Research (CELTER), a World Bank-funded project, run several degree and post-graduate programmes at the Benue State University.

Prof Moses Kembe, the university’s Vice Chancellor, made this known on Tuesday in Makurdi during an interaction with Journalists in his office to mark his third anniversary as the university’s helmsman.

According to Kembe, the centre is mandated to develop technologies to control post-harvest losses through quality higher education, training and research in sub-Sahara Africa.

He said that the NUC approved for the centre to offer degrees in nine specialised fields.

He said the university was the only non-agricultural institution to warehouse the centre.

According to him, the areas are Masters in Analytical Chemistry, Doctorate PhD in Analytical Chemistry; Masters in Organic Chemistry; Doctorate in Organic Chemistry; Masters in Food Chemistry; Masters Biostatistics and Masters in Post Harvest, Physiology and Management of Crops.

He also disclosed that the university was pursuing international accreditation status for Food Chemistry and Post Harvest Physiology of Crops and Management.

Kembe said the university maintained high academic standards to ensure academic excellence, adding that efforts were already paying off with the various feats recorded by its graduates.

According to him, a young law graduate of the school recently won Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s Law Advocacy award.

The vice chancellor said that the number of undergraduate accredited programmes under his leadership increased from 50 to 54 while several new post-graduate programmes were introduced with existing ones strengthened.

He said the university had not reneged on its core areas of establishment which include teaching, research and public service.

Kembe said the school utilised students’ user charges to execute some projects and paid sundry allowances to staff.

“We have drilled boreholes in our host community, constructed and provided computers to schools within.

“We have invested our internally generated revenue to settle pressing obligations such as staff allowances and improved on the general aesthetics of the school.

“We constructed a drivers’ lodge to provide a resting place for our drivers, completed a building block in the Economics Department that was started by the Nigeria Labour Congress at the cost of about N60 million,” he said.

–NAN

BE

– Nov. 7, 2018 @ 10:55 GMT |