TheCable

Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, says the federal government has commenced plans to enroll
students in its aviation and aerospace university.

Sirika disclosed this at an interactive session with journalists on Friday.

In 2017, the federal government had announced that it would established a university to produce aircraft in the future.

Sirika, at the media briefing, said the university is named Aviation and Aerospace University (AAU) and will be located in Abuja.

He said the varsity would commence registration for the 2022/2023 academic session from September 26, 2022 to November 18, adding that the take-off followed a provisional approval by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

He, however, said tthe university would be a pan-African institution but Nigeria would be the focus centre. 

The minister added that “the university has been given a location very close to the airport area by the government and it will be established there”.

He said the university is expected to be a hybrid institution and will be an on-campus and online university. 

“For the start-up, lectures will be done at our temporary headquarters at the Accident Investigative Bureau building at the airport and some of the lectures will be done at Nile university and we will need dormitories, a cafeteria, laboratories,” Sirika added

Sirika further noted that for the first academic year — which is 2022 —  the university would be limited to “BSc aviation business and BSc meteorology programmes” and students enrolled in both courses would be between 20 to 25 each due to the availability of the facility and for maximum efficiency. 

According to him, in the second academic year, masters programme in air transport management would be available. 

“We have been on this project since 2016 because we know it’s a very rigorous exercise we need to put in place all the requirements by the NUC, they have been very supportive, and guided us through the process,” he said. 

“We will be partnering with Nile university here in Abuja we have a memorandum of understanding which we will sign.

“We will soon avail the website which is www.aaau.edu.ng, we need other requirements to activate the website.” 

The university, according to the minister, would be privatised for efficiency and focus, adding that “all the things that we are seeing going wrong with our aviation system are largely due to lack of capacity and understanding of the business itself”.