By Laraba Usman
Pen Resource University in Gombe has matriculated 334 newly admitted students for 2023/2024 academic session.
Speaking on Saturday in Gombe during the matriculation ceremony, Prof. Yusuph Yahaya Ag.Vice chancellor (VC) said that out of the number, 294 were UTME students and 30 new Direct Entry (DE) while the remaining 10, were transfered to 200 Level.
He explained that from the matriculation of Stream I students in December, 2022, the university has added the following programmes namely, Political Science and Administration, Data Science, Petroleum Chemistry, Microbiology, Biotechnology, all in the Faculty of Science and Computing.
He added that a new faculty of Allied Health Sciences with the following programs, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Nursing Science and Public Health was created.
According to him, the new courses were in addition to the existing 27 programmes being run and said that the university now has a total population of 696 students.
He said the University has commenced the stream II admission exercise for the current session (2023/2024) into all the programmes the University offered.
Yahaya said, the courses are Medical Laboratory Science, Nursing Science, Public Health, Accounting, Procurement Management, Business Administration, Economics and Developmental Studies.
Others were International Relations, Mass Communication, Architecture, Biotechnology,
Microbiology, Building, Quantity Surveying, Environmental Management and Toxicology, Common and Islamic Law among other programmes.
In his speech, Dr. Sani Jauro, Pro-chancellor and founder of the university said Pen Resource has set a target of becoming one of the destined University in Nigeria in the next 10 to 15 years.
“The space in which we are approaching this target is so wonderful, that at times we are even scared of it.
“The expansion of the university in terms of facilities, in terms of teaching and learning resources is fast.
“We have just finished one year and we added some courses to the number of courses we had when we took off, this is an indication that nothing will by the grace of God stop us from achieving our target,” he said.
He commended the VC for his uprightness and for bringing out the best in him in running the affairs of the school.
Jauro also announced 35 per cent salary increment for academic staff and 25 per cent for non academic with immediate effect with a view to motivating the staff members of the institution and enhancing service delivery.