Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu has added three professors to her academic feats as three lecturers in the department of philosophy were promoted. The Rector of the Seminary, Very Rev. Fr. Albert Ikpenwa made the announcement during the Community Mass of Wednesday, January 22, 2020. According to the Rector, Rev. Fr. Dr. Sylvanus Ifeanyichukwu Nnoruka was made a professor of philosophy and the duo of Rev. Fr. Dr. Aloysius Chukwuma Obiwulu, and Rev. Fr. Dr. Cletus Umezinwa were graded associate professors.
Suffice it to note that Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu is an institution to reckon with in learning, character and spiritual formation. As an institution of learning, she has continued to break frontiers in the world of academics and in this case in the field of philosophy.
Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu is affiliated to the University of Ibadan, Oyo State – Nigeria, and follows strictly the procedures and guidelines set down by University of Ibadan as well as National Universities Commission, in the evaluation and promotion of her staff. It is in line with the above guideline that Bigard set up her internal organ that evaluates her staff known as Bigard Memorial Seminary Appointment and Promotions Committee (BMSAPC). This organ, it is, that sees to the grading of seminary academic staff. The promotion of staff to the grade of associate professor and a full professor is more rigorous in that the candidate in question would have to request for promotion, if the request is granted, the candidate is then required to present his publications for evaluation by the committee and if there is a prima facie case, then the publications are sent to external assessors.
As regards the recent grading, the Rector explained that the trio of Fr. Dr. Sylvanus Nnoruka, Fr. Dr. Aloysius, and Fr. Dr. Cletus Umezinwa were evaluated by a team of four (4) professors from the University of Ibadan which included the Deputy Vice Chancellor in-charge of Academics, HOD of Philosophy, the Professor in-charge of the Affiliate Institutes, and the professor from the Registry in conjunction with four (4) other professors drawn from the Seminary Promotions Committee made up of Prof Fidelis Okafor – former vice chancellor of Odumegwu Ojukwu University; Prof Boniface Nwigwe – University of Port Harcourt; Prof Nkeonye Otakpor – University of Benin and Prof Francis Njoku – University of Nigeria Nsukka. The eight (8) professors met and started their preliminary evaluation in July 2019; convinced that the candidates passed for grading, the committee, in line NUC promotion guidelines, chose randomly, from different Nigeria’s universities, three (3) professors (for each candidate) to further evaluate their academic publications. The report of the external evaluation, the Rector disclosed, showed that the “publications of the candidates qualified them for promotion”. “I am happy to announce that the internal committee has also upheld the reports of the external evaluators which imply that our seminary has added more names to her list of professors and associate professors” the Rector said. At this point, Rev. Fr. Prof. Sylvanus Nnoruka and colleagues were formally presented to the students by the Rector.