NUC grants Enugu govt license to establish another state university
From Chinedu Nwafor Abakaliki
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has given Enugu State Government a license to establish University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS).
The University is to be sited at Igbo-Eno, Enugu State.
The license was issued to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, at NUC headquarters, Abuja, on Thursday.
This followed the enactment of the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS), Law, Igbo-Eno, Enugu State, on April 13, 2022.
Presenting the license, the Executive Secretary, NUC, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, congratulated Gov. Ugwuanyi and the people of the state “on the establishment of the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences to be located in Igbo-Eno of Enugu State”.
The Enugu had presented the Law establishing SUMAS to the NUC by alongside the Academic brief and Master Plan of the new University.
With the approval by NUC, Enugu State now owns two Universities.
SUMAS is now the 59th State University in Nigeria.
Reacting, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Government House, Enugu, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, who witnessed the presentation of the license to Gov. 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”.
