University of Maiduguri

The University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) is a federal university in Maiduguri, Borno State, in north-eastern Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as one of Nigeria's second-generation universities and takes its name from the Kanem-Bornu Empire, whose seat of government was for centuries at Ngazargamu, a few kilometres from the present campus. It combines teaching, research and community service, and its public services include a teaching hospital, the Ramat Library and the university radio station, Kanem Radio 97.7.

The university is organised into thirteen faculties, five of which sit within the College of Medical Sciences. The university faculties are Agricultural Science, Arts, Communications and Media Studies, Education, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Law, Life Sciences, Management Sciences, Pharmacy, Physical Science, Social Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. The College of Medical Sciences, created under the University of Maiduguri Act No. 83 of 1979, comprises the faculties of Basic Medical Sciences, Basic Clinical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Dentistry and Allied Health Sciences, with twenty-eight departments between them. Its students train at the University Teaching Hospital, and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, established in 1980 and accredited by the Veterinary Council of Nigeria and the NUC, trains at the University of Maiduguri Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

Beyond the faculties, the university runs a set of centres: Instructional Technology, Computer and ICT, Distance Learning, Arid Zone Studies, Research and Documentation in Trans-Sahara Studies, Peace, Diplomatic and Development Studies, Nuclear Energy Research and Training, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, Disaster Risk Management and Development Studies, and Cultural Sustainability, together with a Counselling and Human Development Centre that offers free confidential counselling to students and staff. The Abdulsamad Rabiu International Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship hosts engineering laboratories and a fabrication workshop (the Abdulsamat Lab UNIPOD). Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are run through separate admission portals, and the Institute of Education and the Centre for Distance Learning have their own.

The university is governed by a Governing Council chaired by the Pro-Chancellor, while the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mohammed Laminu Mele, leads day-to-day academic and administrative work, assisted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellors, the Registrar and the Bursar. His stated priorities include full implementation of the NUC quality assurance framework, expanded ICT and fibre-optic infrastructure, a revitalised commercial farm, development of the 108-hectare university land at Alau and consolidating the university as a centre of excellence in medicine.

The university publishes journals including Educational Forum, the Research Journal of Science, AZOJETE (engineering), JOLIMATE (library and information science), the Nigerian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Research and the University of Maiduguri Journal of Islamic and Comparative Laws.