2017 Varsity Games: UBa launches dev't fund

The University of Bamenda (UBa) will on July 2, 2016, go “cap in hand” to raise funds in a move to sustain ongoing development projects within the campus and to ensure a successful organization of the 2017 University games.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Bamenda, Prof Theresa Akenji announced the launching of the University of Bamenda Development Fund, UBaDF recently during an event organized to receive trophies and medals won during the 2016 University Games in Soa.

Through the Board of the fund, parents, friends of UBa and the general public will be called upon to contribute financially to ensure quality education for the students.

Created by Decree NO 2010/371 of the 14th December 2010, the University of Bamenda is the last of the eight state Universities in Cameroon. It inherited the structures of the Cameroon College of Arts and Technology and ENSAB.

The March 8, 2011 decree organizing UBa highlighted the Anglo-Saxon character (art.1) of the University and proposed six faculties and five schools (art.49) which had to go operational within the ambit of the resources available. Of the total 11 establishments, 10 have gone operational.

According to sources at the university, the estimated space available is 699 hectares and enrollment has grown from 5600 students in 2011 to 16,000 in 2016 representing a growing rate of 25 percent per year.

Since creation, the University has been grappling with lack of infrastructure which has acted as a stumbling block to its effective kick off.

Insufficient lecture halls, offices and a very deficient teaching staff has hampered the quality of teaching and supervision in the university.

It is alleged that it is as a result of inadequate infrastructure that the students of the Faculty of Health Science and the College of Technology, COLTECH, were moved to a building in Mile 3 Nkwen, which had graciously been offered to the University by the late Bobe Francis Yong.

While the University was still trying to properly accommodate the ever increasing student population and to be regarded as a university worth the salt, it was again given the herculean task of hosting the 20th edition of the University Games come 2017.

The Rector of the University of Yaounde II, Soa who hosted the 19th edition handed over the Games flag to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Bemenda who now has the task of beginning, infrastructural and logistics preparations for the games.

It's therefore going to be a challenge not only for the University of Bemenda that will be the theatre of the event but the entire region that will be hosting thousands of visitors during the jamboree.

“It is a very big challenge and it can only be realized if all of us put our hands together to make sure that the event is a success. We are having a big event on campus on July 2, 2016 which is the University of Bamenda Development Fund. This fund is supposed to develop the University of Bamenda and will be ongoing” noted UBa VC who has been at the helm for just over six months.

The fund raising initiative by UBa VC has been described by many commentators as a welcome initiative given that the university needs to put in place additional infrastructure, equipment and personnel and given the fact that it will be hosting the University Games for the first time.

However, some are of the opinion that the move is overt lack of entrepreneurship on the part of the university,“Is the investment budget for the University of Bamenda insufficient? Or do they wish to grow at a pace faster than the government desires? Does this apply to other state universities?

Or is it a ploy to burden the anglophone parents and community? The university should be more entrepreneurial (as the motto states) to raise fund than going cap in hand” observed Ernest Kahn, a policy analyst.