Kaduna Polytechnics

Kaduna Polytechnic (KADPOLY) is a federal polytechnic in Kaduna, northern Nigeria. It grew out of the Kaduna Technical Institute, established in 1956, was redesignated the Polytechnic, Kaduna in 1962 and became Kaduna Polytechnic in 1968. Owned and financed by the eleven northern states until 27 August 1991, it was then taken over by the Federal Government. The institution describes itself as the largest technical institution in Africa and, outside Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the biggest higher institution in Nigeria by size, student and staff numbers and programmes offered.

The Polytechnic is built on four campuses, each large enough to rival other higher institutions, and has more than 138 programmes in 44 academic departments. Its crest, the spider and its web (Gizogizo), symbolises sharpness, industry and tenacity, while the hexagonal shape recalls the six northern states that originally owned it.

Academic work is organised into seven colleges: Business and Management Studies; Administrative Studies and Social Sciences; Engineering; Environmental Studies; Science and Technology; Technical and Vocational Education; and Preliminary and Remedial Studies. Within them sit fifteen schools, including Technology, Business and Financial Studies, Management Studies, Natural Resources Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Environmental Design, Geodesy and Land Administration, Social Science, Administrative Studies, Industrial Technology Education, Vocational Education, Health Science Education and Applied Sciences.

Departments span engineering (civil, mechanical, electrical and electronics, chemical, computer, mineral and petroleum resources, railway engineering technology), built-environment fields (architecture, building, quantity surveying, estate management, urban and regional planning, surveying and geoinformatics, cartography and GIS, photogrammetry and remote sensing), business and administration (accounting, banking and finance, marketing, procurement and supply chain management, public administration, local government studies), science and computing, mass communication, hospitality and tourism, food technology, textile and fashion, printing technology, library and information science, and technical, vocational and health education.

The programme list includes ND, HND, NCE, diploma and IJMB courses in regular and evening modes, and the institution is a distance-learning partner through ODFel and hosts a CISCO Network Academy. Students come from across Nigeria and other countries. Kaduna Polytechnic is led by a Rector assisted by a Management Committee and is supervised by a Governing Council; it is a beneficiary of TETFund.