Njala University has ended a three-day Management and Functional Review retreat at the Galliness Hotel in the southern capital of Bo.
The retreat which was held the previous weekend aimed at restructuring programmes and courses of the seven schools of the university.
It was attended by members of the Academic and Administrative Staff of the university. Recommendations on personnel and infrastructure, incorporation of the university’s commercial units into the approved Njala University Enterprise and identification of teaching, research and extension facilities were key outcomes of the retreat.
It is also hoped that the retreat would lead to the rationalisation of key programmes and courses and other related matters leading to the creation of new faculties and programmes, blending of some departments within their schools into one unit for better integration and collaboration.
Departments would also be moved from their original schools, and names of some departments changed taking cognizance of the internal restructuring that had taken place in those schools.
Recommendations for improvement of the university’s infrastructure, setting guidelines for employment of personnel and procedures and processes for the establishment of schools, departments and programmes were made.
Ways to improve teaching, research and extension also formed part of the recommendations. The retreat also culminated into the development of a draft restructuring proposal with very clear timelines and costs for implementation.
in his official opening of the retreat on Thursday 16th July, 2021, Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Andrew Baimba told Deans of Schools as well as Academic and Administrative Staff members that he was in a position to better understand the past and present Njala university, and also participated in designing pathway for tge future of Njala University.
Prof Baimba also noted that the retreat “was an in-house soul searching for the university to look at where it had done well, and identify gaps and challenges to effectively undertake teaching, research and extension as the key mandate of the institution.”
The university Vice Chancellor entreated Deans of Schools to engage in frank discussions on critical goals of the retreat with a view to produce a blueprint.
The blueprint, he went on, would be scrutinised by the university Restructuring Committee for the attention of Senate and the Tertiary Education Commission. The restructuring of the country’s public universities is the new direction of the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education and Government of Sierra Leone to strengthen staff capacities, and develop outcome-based programmes and courses.