Department of Political Science

WELCOME TO THE POLITICAL SCIENCE PROGRAMME

Welcome to the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Management and Social Sciences, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. This Department was established in this University as one of the pioneer academic degree awarding disciplines in the 2012/2013 academic session. The establishment of the Department of Political Science in AEFUNAI since 2012 has opened a new institutional focus for teaching, learning and research as well as community service based on multidisciplinary dimensions that encourage cross curriculum perspectives. Managed under democratic principles with emphasis on the committee system, this Department parades a team of dedicated academics who are not just political scientists par excellence but also are avowed democrats, researchers and teachers who belief in practical academic collegiality and team work.

Since her establishment, the Department has gone through different stages of development that culminated into its conversion from a Programme to a distinct Department on September 1, 2016 resulting to her subsequent attainment of full accreditation status under the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation exercise conducted in 2018. The Department also hosts an array of outstanding scholars that are on full time employment, sabbaticals, visitations and contract as well as adjuncts, part time and volunteer services in their areas of expertise which cut across various dimensions of the discipline based on international and comparative perspectives, theoretical and empirical frameworks as well as practical and field work experiences that offer our students great opportunities of scholarship.

We provide students strong knowledge base in political science and encourage them to engage in critical reasoning and interpretation of political phenomena in today’s rocket challenging environment resulting from the ferocious globalization of scholarship. Integrity and meritocracy are the guiding principles in the relationship between students and members of the staff all of which are based on collegial peer-review exercises and most importantly academic competitiveness that positions the Department at the front burner of the race for best academic practices.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Our Departmental philosophy is to guide our faculty, students and indeed subscribers of our services in the art and science of politics and society based on the interpretation of politics as a living science with diverse societies that demand man’s creativity for excellence against the age old understanding of politics as contestation for political power primarily and solely for the allocation of values and resources of society for vested interests. As a leading social sciences discipline, the political science Department of AEFUNAI cherishes the use of scientific approaches to establish empirical facts of politics through an expository approach that creates political patterns beyond the usual generalizations.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to develop, build and maintain an enviable political science discipline that leads in this industry of human capacity development with our products not only marching ahead of their counterparts in any part of the World  but to also contribute effectively to the improvement of their societies.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to offer society educational products, people; who are intellectually and scientifically relevant to the developmental needs of society through their blending of scholarship with entrepreneurial skills needed in addressing contemporary challenges of our time. We tirelessly developing people with the capacity to articulate, logical thinker with and provide solutions to the ever increasing fundamental social, political and economic problems of human existence. These are the people societies are looking forward as they take their place as citizens capable of providing needed solutions to today’s myriad societal problems. In order to achieve this mission, the teaching staff is committed to designing programmes that provoke critical and empirically based thinking about politics and public life among the students.

OUR CORE VALUES

Our core values are in tandem with the central core values of the AEFUNAI which include building and fostering an academic community within which learning and scholarship is thriving. Here we have domiciled and personalized these values within the unique circumstances of the political science department, guided at all times by the fundamental principles of academic excellence, spirit of collegiality, leadership by example, positive attitude, high moral character and integrity through a commitment to duty.

OUR OBJECTIVES

Our objectives primarily focus on the pursuit of opportunities that encourage excellence in our Staff and Students across the frontiers of scholarship. Here we provide needed assistance to staff and students to become society’s reservoir of problem solvers and mirror images of World class excellence. To achieve this, we guide and encourage staff and students to attain high standards in reading and writing proficiency by equipping them with the skills necessary for the application of political science knowledge in the appropriate job setting.

PROGRAMMES

The Department offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to the award of degrees of Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), (Honours) degree, Postgraduate Diploma (PGD), Master of Science (M.Sc.), Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D). Based on course work carried out through interactive teaching and learning, theoretical and practical approaches that require field work placement for research and community services, efforts are made at exploring the different meanings of politics and political science in theory and practice. Our regime of subject knowledge is anchored on out-put and input mechanism. While our in-put approach rests on course contents, tutorials, course work, examinations and research, our out-put approach rests on feedbacks from students found in results grades from examinations, research findings and voluntary community service as well as reports from employees who benefit immensely from the services of our graduates. Here curriculums are designed to ensure that graduates contribute significantly in solving global and immediate needs of their society.

Added to these are our extension services carried out in collaboration with various directorates of AEFUNAI, individual achievers and corporate establishments who we are constantly engage with as active participants in through our human capacity development workshops, seminar programmes and conferences. These have continued to attract regular inflow of visitors and participants that cut across various areas of society, with the Department as a key player in policy development, monitoring and analyses processes that contribute to the fruition of the new AEFUNAI programme on Internationalization of curriculum; focusing on creating strategic initiatives that links our teachers and researchers to greater competiveness and best international practices in the ongoing global ranking of academics.

GLOBAL LINKAGES

Beyond the domestic linkages and interdisciplinary scholarship between the Department of Political Science and many other Departments and Faculties at AEFUNAI and indeed other Nigerian Universities, there is an increasing globalization of linkages between us and similar departments of Universities outside the shores of this country.  Here we have established strong connections through affiliations with Institutions such as the European Union sponsored Erasmus + programme for teaching and learning which offers our staff and students opportunities for capacity building and curriculum internationalization hosted annually at the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom. Other opportunities for these global linkages abound for us across Europe, the Americas and Asia which we have continued to access for the benefit of our staff and students as are approved under AEFUNAI’s goals and aspirations for the development of faculties of the Universities for the greater benefit of humanity. This remains a timeless project of AEFUNAI under which the University continues to invest great human and material resources to encourage interdisciplinary research, teaching and learning which all culminate into the production of vibrant graduates of not just political science of AEFUNAI but also scholars with a high competitive edge over their contemporaries across the globe.

Once again we welcome you to the Department of Political Science and hope that our relationship with you through this interaction will blossom into a glorious end for the good of humanity.