Name: Professor Polycarp Emeka Chigbu
Position: Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
Contact Details: Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), University of Nigeria, Nsukka
E-Mail Address: polycarp.chigbu@unn.edu.ng
Brief Biography
After obtaining his O’ Level West African School Certificate and Teachers’ Grade Two Certificate from Enyiogugu Secondary School, Mbaise, Imo State and St. Paul’s College, Awka, Anambra State, respectively, Polycarp Emeka Chigbu obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Statistics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in June 1983 and August 1988, respectively. He was the best student in his B.Sc. class having been a beneficiary of the Federal Government of Nigeria Merit Award Scholarship from 1980 to 1983. In 1985, he joined the services of the University of Nigeria as a Graduate Assistant in the department of Statistics after a spell of teaching at the College of Education, Warri, Delta State, under the N.Y.S.C. scheme (1983 – 1984) and in the Secondary School System of Imo State, Nigeria (1984 – 1985), and turning down a Federal Civil Service of Nigeria widely publicized employment to him due to his passion for lecturing and research. He rose through the ranks to be a Professor of Statistics in the same University in 2003.
In 1991, he won a competition organized by the International Statistical Institute in Netherlands for Young Statisticians from the developing countries of the world and was invited to Cairo, Egypt to present his award winning-paper titled “On optimal placement of the knots of polynomial spline functions under variations of optimality criteria” to many eminent Statisticians from various parts of the world who attended the 48th International Statistical Institute (ISI) Session. He later got the Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship award in 1992 and proceeded to the United Kingdom (UK), where he registered for an M.Phil./Ph.D. degree programme in Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. In March 1996, he obtained a Ph.D. degree from the University of London.
While in UK, he also did some part-time teaching at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London.
Professor Chigbu was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) after he was elected by the Senate of the University of Nigeria at its 367th ‘Special’ meeting held on Wednesday, April 17, 2013. In this position, he provides direct support to the Vice-Chancellor on academic matters. Until this appointment, he was the Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies from July 2011 to April 2013, where he recorded remarkable achievements, including stabilizing the flow of academic calendar of the postgraduate studies, computerization of the process of application, admission and registration of postgraduate students, reviewed and upgraded the supervision allowance of postgraduate supervisors by 400 percent and ensured its prompt payment to deserving supervisors, among others.
Professor Chigbu also held other administrative positions at the University of Nigeria before his current appointment. They include Coordinator, Certificate, Diploma and B.Sc. (Sandwich) programmes in Statistics and Computer Science (1998 – 2002), Acting Head of Department of Statistics (2002 – 2004), Director of Academic Planning (2009 – 2011), and Chairman of Senate Entrance Board (2009 – 2014). He also served in many committees of the university at various times. Notable amongst these are the membership of the Senate Entrance Board for three academic sessions, the Joint Council/Senate Committee on Endowment Fund (2009 – 2013), Development Committee of Senate (2008 – 2013), Joint Council and Senate Selection Board for Appointment of Vice-Chancellor (2009), the Information and Communications Technology Committee (2004 – 2009) and the Committee on the Formula for the Calculation of Excess Workload of Academic Staff (2004 - 2005). Others are the Research Grant Committee (1996 – 2002), the Scholarship Committee (1996 – 2002), and the Academic Planning Committee (1990 – 1992), all of the Faculty of the Physical Sciences. As part of his Community Service, Professor Chigbu also served at various times as a member of the Board of Governors, University of Nigeria Secondary School (Nsukka Campus) (2004 – 2014), and the Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association of the same school (2004 – 2009).
