On March 24, 2020, a two-member delegation from the British Council was at AUN.
Program Officer, Chisom Eze, and C1 Manager, Hafsat Mustafa, were on a mission to explore partnership opportunities and possibilities in the areas of livelihood support, educational intervention, Medicare for IDPs, among others.
Addressing the delegation, Vice President for University Relations, Dr. Abba Tahir, said AUN prides itself as a Development University focused on entrepreneurship, community engagement, and service-learning.
"Regardless of what course a student is studying, two things are very fundamental: S/he must offer a course in Entrepreneurship as well as Community Development."
He said AUN is unique in training students to be job creators unlike many other higher institutions in Nigeria. This is why entrepreneurship is central to the education it provides as the graduates of AUN are trained to have the skills and competencies on how to own and operate a business.
"AUN developed its curriculum, benchmarks, standards, and academic focus to step away from producing job seekers to producing and graduating job creators with a sense of their own future in their hands."
He told the delegation that community engagement is also fundamental to the founding of AUN.
"As a university, we do not stand aloof from the community. We look at what are the social, economic, and political challenges in the society. Then as a University, we develop solutions, here, through research, scholarship, training, mentorship, and so on."
Grant Administrator, Audu Liman, explained to the delegation how the university is involved in international development with funding from local and international partners. He explained that the University's community impact projects are executed through the Atiku Center for Development and gave an overview of how the Atiku Center operates.
"Under that unit, we have all the necessary layers that support project management. All project directors report to that unit."
Among the various programs successfully coordinated by the Atiku Center include a nine-month Feed-and-Read program for out-of-school boys and girls whose beneficiaries got a meal a day and are were taught to read. Others which are also currently ongoing are the USAID Strengthening Education in Northeastern Nigeria (SENSE) program, the building resilience livelihood programs by the German government as well as the UNHCR livelihood program for returning women in addition to two other programs.
Director of Financial Operations, Ibrahim Damare, said AUN is one of the first universities in Nigeria to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards.
"This means our own financial reports are acceptable worldwide."
He went on to add that besides having qualified personnel some of whom are ICAN fellows, the university's accounting system is robust.
KPMG and Deloitte are among the international firms that have audited the University's accounts.
"We have had a clean audit from these firms."
Senior Director, Procurement and Strategic Sourcing, Hansen Ivara, told the delegation that the University has a resilient and reliable system in place that drives procurement.
"Ninety percent of our business processes are driven by technology."
Reported by Omorogbe Omorogiuwa