The Vice-Chancellor of Sokoto State University, Prof. Muhammad Bello Yarima, has it appealed to the Sokoto State Government to approve the recruitment of additional academic staff to support the institution’s planned expansion into new faculties and programmes.

Yarima made the appeal on Saturday during the university’s combined fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth convocation ceremonies in Sokoto.

He said the university, established in 2009 with three pioneer faculties, has grown to five faculties and is awaiting approval from the National Universities Commission (NUC) for 22 additional academic programmes, a development that would increase the number of faculties to between eight and nine.

According to the vice-chancellor, the institution’s growing admission quota, expanding academic offerings and increasing student population have created the need for more qualified academic personnel.

He said the proposed programmes include Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Medical Sciences and Nursing, describing them as strategic courses designed to meet the country’s evolving manpower demands.

Yarima also disclosed that the university had introduced a monthly public lecture series to encourage research and knowledge exchange.

He added that the institution was working towards establishing a Centre of Excellence for Solid Mineral Research to promote scientific mining practices and address the challenge of illegal mining.

According to him, the university is collaborating with institutions in India and China to secure equipment and training for the proposed centre.

The vice-chancellor further noted that the university has continued to benefit from interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund in infrastructure development, research and staff training, with several lecturers undergoing capacity-building programmes in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and India.

Yarima commended Ahmed Aliyu for supporting the institution, including funding the combined convocation ceremony and sustaining the state’s policy of automatic employment for first-class graduates.

He disclosed that four first-class graduates were recently recruited into various faculties under the policy, while a total of 42 students graduated with first-class honours during the combined convocation.

The university also graduated 779 students from the Faculty of Arts, 347 from Computing, 1,187 from Education, 1,886 from Science and 1,317 from Social Sciences.

In his address, Governor Aliyu reiterated his administration’s commitment to strengthening the education sector, describing it as critical to sustainable development.

He said the state government had cleared salary arrears owed to visiting and sabbatical lecturers, implemented salary increases for academic staff, renovated staff quarters and constructed a sports complex.

The governor also commended former governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko for establishing the university, saying the institution has widened access to higher education for thousands of students in the state.