Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is a federal government research university located in Zaria, Kaduna State. ABU was founded on October 4, 1962, as the University of Northern Nigeria.
The university operates three main campuses: Samaru and Kongo in Zaria, and School of Basic Studies in Funtua. The Samaru campus houses the administrative offices, sciences, social-sciences, arts and languages, education, environmental design, engineering, medical sciences agricultural sciences and research facilities. The Kongo campus hosts the Faculties of Law and Administration. The Faculty of Administration consists of Accounting, Business Administration, Local Government and Development Studies and Public Administration Departments. Additionally, the university is responsible for a variety of other institutions and programs at other locations.
The university is named after the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first premier of Northern Nigeria.
The university runs a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate programs (and offers associate degrees and vocational and remedial programs). The university has a large medical program with its own A.B.U. Teaching Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Nigeria and Africa.
The ABU Vision
According to Sir Ahmadu Bello
“Ahmadu Bello University shall be a world-class university comparable to any other, engaged in imparting contemporary knowledge, using high quality facilities and multi-disciplinary approaches, to men and women of all races, as well as generating new ideas and intellectual practices relevant to the needs of its immediate community, Nigeria and the world at large.”
HISTORY
As Nigeria approached independence on October 1, 1960, it had only a single university: the University of Ibadan, established in 1948. The important Ashby Commission report (submitted a month before independence) recommended adding new universities in each of Nigeria’s then-three regions, as well as the capital, Lagos. Even before the Commission report, however, the regional governments had begun planning universities. In May, 1960, the Northern Region had upgraded the School of Arabic Studies in Kano to become the Ahmadu Bello College for Arabic and Islamic Studies. (The college was named after the region’s dominant political leader, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello.)
The Ashby Commission report recommendations gave a new impetus and direction, and it was ultimately decided to create a University of Northern Nigeria at Zaria (rather than Kano). The university would take over the facilities of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Samaru just outside Zaria, and would incorporate the Ahmadu Bello College in Kano, the Agricultural Research Institute at Samaru, the Institute of Administration at Zaria, and the Veterinary Research Institute at Vom on the Jos Plateau. The law establishing the new university was passed by the Northern Region legislature in 1961. It was decided to name the university after Ahmadu Bello, and the Kano College then took the name of Abdullahi Bayero, a past Emir of Kano.
At the opening on October 4, 1962, thanks in part to absorbing existing institutions, ABU claimed four faculties comprising 15 departments. However, students in all programs numbered only 426. The challenges faced were enormous. Over 60 years of British colonial rule, education in the Northern Region had lagged far behind that of the two southern regions. Few students from the North had qualifications for university entrance, and fewer still northerners had qualifications for teaching appointments. Of the original student body, only 147 were from the North. ABU’s first vice chancellor (principal administrator and leader) was British, as were most of the professorial appointments. Only two Nigerians — Dr. Iya Abubakar (Mathematics) and Adamu Baikie (Education) — were among the earliest round of faculty appointments. Facilities on the main Samaru campus were inadequate, and the administration and integration of the physically separated pre-existing institutions was difficult.
Nevertheless, under the vice chancellorship of Dr. Norman S. Alexander, academic and administrative staffing was developed, new departments and programs were created, major building plans were undertaken, and student enrollments grew rapidly. By the end of Alexander’s tenure (1965–66), almost 1,000 students were enrolled. The New Zealand-born Alexander, from 1966, became a kind of “freelance vice-chancellor”, offering his expertise to help in the setting up of other Commonwealth universities in the West Indies, Fiji and Africa.
In 1966, Dr. Alexander was succeeded as ABU vice chancellor by Dr. Ishaya Shuaibu Audu, a pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Lagos. Audu had been born in Wusasa, near Zaria, in 1928. A native Hausa, he was ABU’s first Nigerian vice chancellor and a northerner. However, his membership in the Hausa Christian community of Wusasa probably had some later impact on his tenure.
ABU was seriously affected by the coups and the anti-Igbo riots of 1966. But, under Dr. Audu’s leadership, ABU was to grow and develop at an even faster pace. Growth in student enrollments had been held hostage to growth and development of A-level training at the secondary school level. So beginning in 1968–69 ABU broke free from the British three-year heritage and established the School of Basic Studies to provide advanced secondary pre-degree training on campus. Students who entered through the School of Basic Studies essentially embarked on a four-year program toward a bachelor’s degree.
Opposed initially by some, the school proved a great success and enrollments expanded even more rapidly. By its tenth year ABU total enrollments including non- and pre-degree programs were put at over 7,000 of which more than half were in degree programs. In its first ten years, the University of Ibadan produced 615 graduates. At ABU the corresponding figure after 10 years was 2,333 first degrees, along with several advanced degrees.
From the beginning, ABU was remarkable for the breadth of its ambition. In its institutions, but mainly on or close by the main campus by Samaru, ABU was creating a range of programs that only the very most comprehensive of U.S. state universities could have matched. Ranging far beyond the standard fields of the arts, languages, social sciences and sciences, it included engineering, medicine (the Zaria hospital was an ABU teaching hospital), pharmacy, architecture, and a wide variety of agricultural departments including veterinary medicine. The Faculty of Law was based at the Kongo campus. The Faculty of Education not only taught education courses but also managed the Advanced Teacher’s Colleges in the northern states. At the Kano campus (now called Abdullahi Bayero College) ABU taught courses in Hausa, Arabic and Islamic studies.
ABU was likewise remarkable among Nigeria’s universities for the breadth and national character of its student recruitment. ABU had been founded to be the University of Northern Nigeria. Yet, more than any other of Nigeria’s universities, ABU has served students from every state of the Nigerian federation.
ABU continues to occupy a particularly important place among Nigerian universities. As it approaches its half-century anniversary, ABU can claim to be the largest and the most extensive of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, it covers a land area of 7,000 hectares and encompasses 12 academic faculties, a postgraduate school and 82 academic departments. It has five institutes, six specialized centers, a Division of Agricultural Colleges, demonstration secondary and primary schools, as well as extension and consultancy services which provide a variety of services to the wider society. The total student enrollment in the university’s degree and sub-degree programs is about 35,000, drawn from every state of Nigeria, from Africa and from the rest of world. There are about 1,400 academic and research staff and 5,000 support staff. The university has nurtured two new institutions: Bayero University Kano and the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University of Technology, Bauchi.
Ahmadu Bello University has a chancellor as its ceremonial head, while the vice-chancellor is the chief executive and academic officer. The vice-chancellor is usually appointed for a five-year, non-renewable term. The 15th and current vice-chancellor;Professor Kabir Bala,from22ndJanuary, 2020–Date, Construction Management.
LOCATION
The University operates three main campuses: Samaru and Kongo in Zaria and School of Basic Studies in Faunta; with its main campus in Samaru, Zaria – Kaduna, Nigeria.
COURSES AVAILABLE
The ABU has grown to become the largest, and the most influential and diverse university in Nigeria. Consisting of eighty-two (82) Academic Departments, twelve (12) Faculties, and twelve (12) Research Institutes and Specialized Centers, the University offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in such diverse fields as Agriculture, Public and Business Administration, Engineering, Environmental Design, Education, Biological and Physical Sciences, Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Humanities, Law and Social Sciences;
Faculty of Administration
· Department of Accounting
· Department of Business Administration
· Department of L G & Development Studies
· Department of Public Administration
Faculty of Agriculture
· Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology
· Department of Agronomy
· Department of Animal Science
· Department of Crop Protection
· Department of Plant Science
· Department of Soil Science
Faculty of Arts
· Department of African Languages and Cultures
· Department of Arabic
· Department of Archeology
· Department of English
· Department of French
· Department of Hausa
· Department of
· Department of Theatre & Performing Arts
Faculty of Education
· Department of Arts and Social Science Education
· Department of Educational Foundation & Curriculum
· Department of Educational Psychology &Counseling
· Department of Library and Information Science
· Department of Physical and Health Education
· Department of Science Education
· Department of Vocational and Technical Education
Faculty of Engineering
· Department of Agricultural Engineering
· Department of Chemical Engineering
· Department of Civil Engineering
· Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
· Department of Mechanical Engineering
· Department of Metallurgical Engineering
· Department of Water Resources & Environmental Engineering
· Department of Environmental Design
· Department of Architecture
· Department of Building
· Department of Fine Arts
· Department of Geomantic
· Department of Industrial Design
· Department of Quantity Surveying
· Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Faculty of Law
· Department of Civil Law
· Department of Commercial Law
· Department of Private Law
· Department of Public Law
· Department of Sharia Law
Faculty of Medicine
· Department of Anesthesia
· Department of Chemical Pathology
· Department of Community Medicine
· Department of Dental Surgery
· Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion
· Department of Human Anatomy
· Department of Human Physiology
· Department of Medical Microbiology
· Department of Medicine and surgery
· Department of Nursing Science
· Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
· Department of Ophthalmology
· Department of Pediatrics
· Department of Pathology (Morbid Anatomy)
· Department of Psychiatrics
· Department of Radiology
· Department of Surgery
· Department of Traumatic and Orthopedic Surgery
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science
· Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacy Practice
· Department of Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry
· Department of Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Microbiology
· Department of Pharmacognosy & Drug Development
· Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Faculty of Science
· Department of Biochemistry
· Department of Biological Sciences
· Department of Botany
· Department of Chemistry
· Department of Geography
· Department of Geology
· Department of Mathematics
· Department of Microbiology
· Department of Physics
· Department of Textile Science & Technology
Faculty of Social Science
· Department of Economics
· Department of Mass Communication
· Department of Political Science
· Department of Sociology
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
· Department of Theriogenology and Production
· Department of Veterinary Anatomy
· Department of Veterinary Medicine
· Department of Veterinary Parasitology and Entomology
· Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology
· Department of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology
· Department of Veterinary Physiology
· Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine
· Department of Veterinary Surgery and Medicine
SCHOOL FEES
Ahmadu Bello University – ABU Zaria Acceptance fee for fresh students 2021/2022 academic session is 30,000 Naira (Thirty Thousand Naira) per student. This fee is a non-refundable fee and is to be paid just once. The school fee as inscribed for each faculty is as follows;
Faculty of Administration
Freshers N40, 500
Returning students N23, 000
Faculty of Agriculture
Freshers N40, 500
Returning students N23, 000
Faculty of Arts
Freshers N39, 500
Returning students N23, 000
Faculty of Education
Freshers N39, 500
Returning students N23, 000
Faculty of Social Science
Freshers N39, 500
Returning students N23, 000
Faculty of Environmental Design
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