Introduction
Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance is the heart beat of the university. It was established at the commencement of the University in 2018. The unit is headed by a Director, appointed and posted to the University from the Military Headquaters. The Director is responsible to the Vice-Chancellor, and is responsible for hamonizing and organising academic policies of the university in an advisory capacity to the Vice- Chancellor and other arms of the university. He takes operational responsibility within the University for the Management of academic quality and standards. The Director is assisted by a Chief Academic Planning Officer, who is a season academic planner with nearly two decades of experience in academic planning at National Universities Commission. The Directorate had rightly guided the University in its maiden programme accreditation in 2022. Out of 31 programmes presented, 28 secure Full Accreditation status, while 3 were placed on Interim Status.
Functions
The fuction of the Director of Academic Planning and Quality Assuarance as concieved by NUC and adopted in Nigerian University System includes the following:
⦁ Annually update, analyse and project population data for planning, and preparation of the university’s recurrent budget and resource allocation base on the approved budget;
⦁ Assist in the development of new guidelines and criteria of the review of exisiting ones;
⦁ Collect data on trends in university activities such as enrollments, staffing, staff training, graduate output etc. and make such data available for researchers;
⦁ Collect, analyse and interpret relevent data from all university units;
⦁ Document and store informantion of all academic programmes;
⦁ Ensure that the unversity complies with and maintains minimum academic standard;
⦁ Make projections and advice the Vice-Chencellor on areas of major concern and vigilance;
⦁ Organise the drafting and review of the university academic brief, whenever necessary;
⦁ Participate in curriculum review activities and ensure compliance with guideline and procedure for the establishment of new programmes;
⦁ Provide data backed informaton on academic operation of the university;
⦁ Publish university records, statistics, research report, etc.;
⦁ Regular update and evaluation of data from relevent university units and the analysis of the performance of the university.
⦁ Documenting and reporting product or service quality levels.
⦁ Developing and implementing standards for inspection.
⦁ Developing a workflow for teaching inspection.
⦁ Developing plans to help the university manage waste.
⦁ Communicating with other team members to solve problems.
⦁ Organogram
The organogram of a typical office of academic planning in Nigerian Universities is as shown below:
Sections and functions
At the moment, due to the lack of adequate manpower, the Directorate do not have clearly demarcated sections and function. Generally, the Chief Academic Planning Officer oversees the day-to-day functions of the various sections with the assistance of the available staff. The Directorate when fully established shall be made up of five sections based on what is obtainable under the current practices in Nigerian University system. Each section is expected to bear and to perform certain function by virtue of its nomenclature. All the sectional heads and those under them are functionally answerable to the Director through the deputy. In addition to the functions of each section notwithstanding, the Director can assign any other function to any section. The sections and their function are indicated below:
Academic Recourse Planning Section
⦁ Collection, analysis and interpretation of data from relevant university bodies.
⦁ Provision of data-based information on various aspect of university operation for use by the university.
⦁ Periodic up-dating and analysis of data from relevant university bodies, the internal evaluation of the performance status of the university on all NUC-approved funding parameters and other guidelines.
⦁ Annual up-dating, projection, analysis and interpretation of data for the Planning and preparation of the university budget and subsequent resource allocation within the ambit of the approved budget.
⦁ Any other university function assigned to it and which has to do with careful collection, analysis and interpretation of data for purpose of meeting certain criteria etc. or for providing other university bodies. (MIS, PIU, ETC) information they need.
Academic Programme and Feedback Planning Section
⦁ Collecting relevant data on changing trends on university activities, enrolment, staff training and turnover, etc. and passing such data on for institutional – based research.
⦁ Ensuring that the university complies with and maintain standard, through passing necessary information to department’s and the university at large on NUC’s minimum academic standard.
⦁ Ensuring that the university complies with and maintain standard through passing necessary information to department and the university at large on NUC minimum academic standards. Storage and retrieval of relevant institutional data for approved research especially on academic staff workload, areas of specialisation, university research output, public service performance output, using feedback data for generating information that can be used for evaluating the internal operations of the university against approved criteria.
⦁ Participating in University circular revision or review activities as well as ensuring that the university complies with the procedure and guideline on the establishment of new program.
⦁ Helping the university in producing and revising long-term and short-term academic brief and or plan on modeling of such plan against reality and university goals.
Processing Planning Section
a) Using collected data for making projection and advising the university on areas of dire concern and alert.
b) Assisting the NUC and university in identifying new guidelines and criteria, modifying existing ones etc for annual resource allocation and as the vice –chancellor may direct.
Institutional Research, Statistics and Publication Section
a) Collection and storage of publication of statistical nature from other universities.
b) Documenting and storing information on academic programmes of the university.
c) Preparation of research material/papers on the basis of data supplies to it from the feedback planning section.
d) Analysis and interpretation of the university annual trends and statistics.
e) Publication of the university record and statistics, research report as may be directed/approved by the vice-chancellor.
Secretarial Services Section
⦁ Undertaking secretarial duties including ward processing, typing etc.
⦁ Management of the general office
⦁ Proper storage of staff files.
⦁ Proper storage of office record