The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) has finally returned to normal school calendar for the first time in nearly a decade. UNN welcomed fresh students on September 27 and existing students on October 4 in all campuses of the multi-campus university that clocked 52 years yesterday, October 7.

Vice Chancellor Prof. Bartho Okolo said the University Administration was happy at the return to normalcy in the school calendar following years of elongated or truncated academic calendars caused by a number of environmental factors. These factors include strikes by academic and non-academic staff, internally or nationally, as well as the occasional student disturbances.

“We have worked hard to get to this point. We project that the 2012/2013 academic year would run from September 2012 and end on June 30^th 2013. That way students can expect to have the hitherto normal three-month vacation at the end of the session,” Prof. Okolo stated.

He called on all stakeholders of the university to work collaboratively with university administration to ensure attainment of the projected academic calendar.

Okolo (shown in photo) asked stakeholders to explore and utilise all avenues for dispute resolution within the university system so that there are no further disruptions internally.

Said the UNN Vice Chancellor: “We cannot control external factors, but we can work together, university administration, staff and students, to ensure that we sustain this return to normalcy and never have reason to rush through our academic year again or shift it forward because of problems.”

Established in 1960 as the first full-fledged university in Nigeria, UNN runs diverse programmes in arts and sciences featuring 15 faculties, 105 departments and 7 directorates charged with special projects. It has a student body of 40,000 in four campuses of Nsukka, Enugu, Ituku Ozalla and Aba.

The main campus in Nsukka houses programmes in agriculture, basic and biological sciences, engineering, arts and social sciences while the Enugu campus houses professional courses in management, architecture, law and environmental sciences. The College of Medicine, with a teaching and referral hospital, is located at Ituku-Ozalla, on the outskirts of the Enugu state capital, while the School of Languages is located at Aba, in Abia State.