The Federal Government has revealed that plans are underway to establish the African Aviation and Aerospace University (AAAU) in Abuja, just in time for a new academic session which will commence from September 26 to November 18, 2022.
The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, made this known during a media briefing about the university in his office at the weekend.
The need to establish the university was due to the desire of the government to contribute more to the aviation sector which will in turn boost the country’s economy.
According to him, the main objective of the establishment of the aviation university is the need for the country to go into field research development in aviation and aerospace.
Sirika stressed that the aviation university would be a pan-African university, not limiting its intake of students to only Africa, but Nigeria will be the focus centre. The university is supposed to be a hybrid university, with academic activities ongoing on-campus and online.
“For the start-up, lectures will be done at our temporary headquarters at the Accident Investigative Bureau (AIB) building at the airport and some of the lectures will be done at the Nile University. We will need dormitories, a cafeteria, laboratories.”
Sirika noted that, in its first academic year (2022) the university will be limited to just undergraduate degrees in aviation business and meteorology programmes, with students for each course numbering 20 to 25 for maximum efficiency, while a master’s degree air transport management will be included in the second year.
“We need to establish a university dedicated to that and it has taken a long time. We have been on this project since 2016 because we know it is a very rigorous exercise. We need to put in place all the requirements by the National University Commission (NUC). They have been very supportive and guided us through the process.
“We will be partnering with the Nile University here in Abuja. We have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which we will sign. We will soon avail the website (www.aaau.edu.ng), [as we await] other requirements to activate the website.
“We need to move from these basic skills into real knowledge, so that we can contribute immensely to the GDP of the country and the general and socio-well being of Nigeria,” he added.
