Guidance and Counselling
WELCOME SPEECH
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome every one of us to this first meeting I am presiding over as the head of this great Department. I have described this Department as a great one because of the calibre of staff that make up the Department. It is not common in a university of this age to have a Department with three professors, one reader and four senior lecturers. And in all, more than 80% of the sixteen (16) strong academic staff members have Ph.D degrees. It is a privilege being asked to head a Department like this. While one appreciates the privilege of this office, I like to state clearly that the challenges and responsibilities of an office like this are quite tremendous.
It is on this latter aspect that I want to dwell a little. A Department is the most crucial academic unit in a university system from where relevant academic programmes and research activities are initiated, developed and accommodated. It is the power house for the generation and dissemination of ideas and knowledge. Thus the quality and quantity of teaching, learning and research in any university are measured in terms of how these activities are handled by individual Departments making up faculties and faculty/college making up the university. In the light of the above, I like to share my dream and vision for this Department with you for the period of my tenure, bearing in mind the multidisciplinary nature of the Department. No matter how great or good a thing may be, if perfection has not been attained, then there is room for improvement. It is important to state from the beginning that my dream is to make this Department a research – and computer – driven Department which will eventually become a model of practice for other Departments of the same subject-orientation in this country and Africa. A research-driven Department centres its activities on purposeful and society-oriented investigation. To this end, it is my desire that a Departmental based research agenda be developed drawing on the rich expertise available through individual member’s area of specialization. Every academic staff member is hereby encouraged to start to brainstorm on society-relevant research areas that he or she can handle to form part of the Departmental research agenda that I am talking about. (Details of how to go about this shall be unfolded in another forum). The Department shall be computer – driven in the sense that all our activities shall be fully computerized: Our research agenda itself shall be computer -driven, our teaching and services shall be computer facilitated. A research-driven Department is full of activities: investigating, publishing, teaching and rendering community services. The teaching of a research – driven Department is rich and deep because lecturers are teaching from the outcomes of their research activities and publications. A research-driven Department is innovative because everybody is busy tracking down new developments in his/her field of study and daily accumulating knowledge that can be used to attain the best practice in teaching, research and services. In conclusion, all that have been envisioned in this brief address can only be attained with the cooperation of everyone and with everyone displaying high sense of commitment and dedication. We must all look towards a prosperous and bright future in our career. We can win the Nobel Prize if we so desire. It is possible with all hands on deck, looking ahead and daring to do things differently and employing the best practice. I need your cooperation. Thanks and God bless you all.
Dr. (Mrs.) Tayo OLAJUBUTUHead of Department.
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