Patience Leonard, PBA Journalism MenteeThe National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved a University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) in Igbo Eno, Enugu State.
This has brought the number of state owned universities in Nigeria to 59 and two state universities owned by the government of Enugu State.
NUC approved of the University on Thursday, June 16th 2022 at their headquarters in Abuja after enacting SUMAS law in April, 2022.
In a letter signed by the executive secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar, said “National Universities Commission, hereby, pledges its total support to the University. We also enjoin His Excellency and the Enugu state government to take full advantage of the professional and technical advice that the commission is statutorily required to provide, on the establishment, sustainable funding if the University.”
However, the first state owned university Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), was formerly Anambra State University of Technology (ASUTECH) before the creation of Enugu in 1991.
ESUT is located both in Agbani and Enugu while the new state university is located at Igbo-Eno, Ovokoland in Igbo Eze South Local Government.
Meanwhile, a statement made available to news men by Mr. Amoke Louis, media assistant to the governor, read in part “SUMAS, Igbo-Eno has become the 59th State University in Nigeria. Enugu State with two State-owned universities has now joined the league of states with more than one state university.”
He added that the Deputy Chief of Staff, Government House, Enugu, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, who witnessed the presentation of the license to Governor Ugwuanyi at the NUC headquarters, Abuja, said ‘‘We can’t thank the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State enough for achieving this goal of providing the platform for increased access to quality university education for our teeming youths who struggle year after year to gain admission into the university without fulfilling their desires and dreams for university education.”
“This is especially so for professional courses such as medicine. The existing Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) get over 2, 000 applications from our youths to study medicine but only a paltry 50 applicants (candidates) are offered access to study medicine at the end.
“Even the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), the Federal University in Enugu State, offers only about 180 candidates admission into medicine leaving the dreams of thousands of our youths to study the course dashed year after year.
“This is despite the deficit in the number of medical doctors and nurses required to optimize medical and healthcare for our people.”
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