What Every Fresher Needs To Know 3 Chapter 2: Familiarize Yourself

Enough of the felicitations; the earlier you get to real business the better for you. Though initially it

will look as though there is nothing much to do around here, but do not be deceived to believe it will continue like this for so long. The little period you have now is meant to settle down before serious academic activities begin. It will make a lot of sense if you can invest in this time. Rather than just sitting down chatting uselessly or meeting friends on endless row, you should invest the time in familiarizing yourself with this new environment you have found yourself. Take a tour around the school in order to get to know the important places on your campus. Some of the places you will like to visit are:

- The School Library

- The School Chapel

- The School Sports Hall/Complex

- The School Main Auditorium

- The School Administrative Block

- The School Bookshop

- The School Cafeteria

- The School Health Center

- The Students' Affairs Office

- The Students Union Building

- The Students Information Center/Gardens

- Shopping Mall/Central Supermarket

- The Student Counseling Department

- The School Zoo or Botanical Center

- The diverse halls of residence (hostels)

- The major Lecture Theatres in each faculty

This you should do preferably in the company of a senior colleague or, in the absence of that, a fellow fresher in order to catch maximal fun. It will also make a lot of sense to get a copy of your time table for the semester and try to take a visit to all the halls where you will receive lectures for the semester. Know the lecture theaters, the laboratories, the practical rooms, and every other place you will need to know to place you on a better pedestal.

Do not wait till your first lecture day before you start to figure things out. If allowed, go inside the lecture halls and familiarize yourself with the seat arrangements, air ventilation, and aesthetics of the place. Look around and probably choose a comfortable seat where you will like to always sit. This will make you better prepared for what lies ahead, and you will later discover that you will be far better than most of your mates who have not taken time to do this.

NEW VOCABULARY

Some of the vocabularies you have been used to, as you will soon find out, will disappear into thin air and other sets of vocabularies will replace them with time. Words like Princ.i.p.als, Vice Princ.i.p.als and cla.s.s teachers will be replaced with Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors and Lecturers.

Some of these fresh terms will sound strange to you if you are very new to the university environment, but with time, just like every other undergraduate, you will soon get used to them. Some of them are explained below for ease of communication.

(A) COURSES

These are similar to what you call subjects in your secondary school. They are the sub-units in which your workload in the university is divided into. A lecturer handles each course, and you must register for a number of them each semester of your stay on campus. These

courses are in five groups.

1. Compulsory Courses

These are your core (main) courses. They are, as the name sounds, compulsory for all students in your department to register for, and more importantly to pa.s.s before making progress in their academic pursuit. These courses differ from one department to another.

2. Prerequisite Courses

These, in a way, are compulsory courses. Adequate knowledge of this course is always required to undertake a related course at a higher level. Every student is expected to sit for, and pa.s.s this course in order to be allowed to register for the related courses. Failure to pa.s.s this course, a student is asked to carry it over and denied the opportunity to sit for its related course at the higher

level until he has pa.s.sed it.

3. Elective Courses

These are, unlike the last one, optional courses. A student can decide to take or leave them (in consultation with his course adviser). They are usually there to make up for the additional units required by the university each semester for the award of a degree at the end of the journey.

4. Concurrent Courses

These are courses, which must be offered alongside each other at the same level. One cannot be offered without the other. The two must be offered at the same time.

5. Borrowed Courses

These are courses that you are required to sit for but are not offered by your department. You will need to go out of your way to other departments to register for the course and to attend its lectures. This also must be taken in consultation with your course adviser

(B) LECTURER

This is the person who is specially trained to pa.s.s specified information to a cla.s.s of students concerning a particular course. They are similar to what you call teachers in your secondary school. They are in various degrees: -

(1) Full Time Lecturer

This is the one who takes it as his only job. He does no other job (at least known to the school authority) apart from lecturing. He/She is required to be at his duty post during the whole of the working week. He lectures on a full time basis.

(2) Part Time Lecturer

This is the one who lectures as a part time activity. He is required to lecture for less than the normal working week.

(3) Guest/Visiting Lecturer

This only comes on schedule. He is not a regular lecturer on your campus. He is only invited in as a guest once in a while to a.s.sist a particular lecturer or probably to handle courses that no lecturer on your campus can handle.

(4) a.s.sistant Lecturer

These are junior lecturers who a.s.sist other senior lecturers with much workload.

(C) COURSE ADVISER

This is one of the teaching staffs in your department that the school specifically a.s.signs to you. His duty is to give you necessary guidance and advice in respect to what course to offer and when to offer them. You may be lucky enough to have one of your lecturers as your course adviser. Alternatively, another lecturer from your department may be a.s.signed to you.

(D) COURSE REGISTRATION

Registering for a course means enlisting yourself as one of the students who are going to take the lectures and sit for the examinations of the course. This is usually done at the commencement of every semester/session since you will have to offer different courses every

semester/session.

(E) CARRY OVER
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This, in plain words, means repeating. However, unlike in your former school where you are asked to repeat a particular cla.s.s when your performance is below expectation, in the higher inst.i.tution, you are asked to only repeat the failed course. In other words, you reregister for the course; retake the lectures, and re-sit the examination, while still taking other courses at the

higher level.

(F) FACULTY

The University is a large community. Therefore, for easy administration, the school system is divided into smaller units. Each of these units is designed to standalone in their operations, although still subjected to the const.i.tution and the regulation of the school. These units

are called faculties. In some other schools, they are referred to as colleges, inst.i.tutes, or school. Each of these faculties has its own board comprising of both the academic staffs and the non-academic staff, and headed by the Dean of the faculty.

Other important officers in the faculty are:

The Faculty Officer (F.O)

The Sub Dean (S.D)

The Faculty Examination Officer (F.E.O)

The Disciplinary Officer (D.O)

All of these are trained to perform specific tasks in order to achieve the aims and objectives of the school. They must be honored and respected. Some of the most common faculties in Nigerian universities are faculty of Medicine, Engineering, Law, Science, Education, Management, Social Science, Business Administration, Agricultural Science, Technology etc.

(G) DEPARTMENTS

For proper administrative purposes, the faculties are further broken down into smaller units called

Departments. Each department is in charge of particular disciplines. Some of these disciplines carry varying options. Each department is supervised by the Head of Department (HOD) and a.s.sisted by other staff of the department.

(H) SEMESTER

This is the duration of a half-year course in the university. It is similar to what you call a term in your

former school. The only difference is that though you had three terms in a school calendar year where you are coming from, here you only have two semesters. There is no first term, second term and third term. There is only first semester and second semester. The first semester is the first half year while the second semester, the second half year, is like the third term in which the promotional examination that takes you to the next level is conducted.

An average semester runs for about 16 weeks of lecture after which the examination is conducted.

(I) SESSION

This is a full academic year. It consists of two semesters, the first semester and the second semester.