Preamble
The aim of this Student Handbook is to provide essential information to students about Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina, with a professed objective of enlightening them about the rules and regulations governing the University. This segment of the book offers information about the B.A. History programme.
This Handbook is an updated version and it is a reference material on our do’s and don’ts as well as a document containing essential information regarding the courses offered in the Department. It also provides the required information about the process of registration, course structure and registration guidelines, among others.
I wish to seize this chance to quickly add that while this book is basically designed to guide our new students, there is still much for the old students to learn from it as a reference material.
Finally, we welcome our new students on board and we also humbly pray for their success in their period of study with us.
Dr. Jamilu Shehu
Head of Department
Brief History of the Department
The Department of History was established in January 2007 with the establishment of Katsina State University (now Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina). The Department took off at the temporary site of the University at Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic.
The programme started in the 2006/2007 academic session with 2 Senior Lecturers, 2 Lecturer II and 8 Graduate Assistants. Malam (now Dr.) Jamilu Shehu was the first staff appointed as acting Head of Department. He was succeeded by Dr. Aliyu Muri in 2008, and in 2011 Dr. Abubakar Sani Babajo took over the headship of the Department. Dr. Jamilu Shehu took over from Dr. Babajo in 2016 and is currently the Head of Department.
Philosophy
The philosophy of the Department is to nurture the minds of our students to acquire lessons of History that will move our society, the nation, and above all the world forward.
Objectives
The History programme has the following objectives:
- To educate students on the historical movements of global importance from other continents so as to enable them acquire better knowledge of the world and thus promote world peace.
- To develop a sense of commitment in our students and the capacity to consciously relate historical forces and developments in such a way that Nigerian and African unity, independence and prosperity can be achieved.
- To provide students with the advantages usually associated with historical training, viz: critical and analytical faculty and balanced judgement needed particularly in administrative and managerial responsibilities.
- To encourage in students an awareness of their responsibilities and opportunities as Nigerian citizens.
- To stimulate an appreciation of the world in which the students find themselves and to encourage them to analyze historical forces/issues which are suitable to post-colonial era and that are compatible with national and intellectual integrity as well as the continuous development and progress of humanity.
- To prepare students for further studies and research in history at local, national and international levels.