By Alumona Ukwueze
ENUGU — The Vice-Chancellor of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Prof. Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, has said the institution will introduce Artificial Intelligence, AI, courses into its academic programmes to promote experiential learning and hands-on education.
Okolie said the university management would leverage the 30 per cent flexibility provided under the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards, CCMAS, to review its curriculum and accommodate AI-related courses.
He stated this yesterday in a keynote presentation titled, “Embedding Artificial Intelligence and Experiential Learning in the Institutional Curriculum for Innovation, Creativity and Real-world Problem-solving,” at the commencement of a three-day workshop on curriculum review at the university.
According to him, the revised curriculum would be introduced for students admitted into 100 Level in the 2026/2027 academic session.
He listed Cyber Security, Data Science, Intelligence and Security Studies, Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence among the areas to be incorporated into the curriculum.
“The essence of this infusion is to ensure that our graduates become innovators and problem-solvers instead of job seekers.
“The duty of the management and facilitators would be to track these innovations to ensure that they are being used productively for societal development,” he said.
Okolie said the curriculum review would also help the university implement the experiential learning model being promoted by the Enugu State Government to position the state as a hub for innovation and productivity.
The lead facilitator and Director of Academic Planning, ESUT, Prof. Chike Anibeze, urged Nigerian universities to embrace AI as an educational, institutional, economic and societal imperative.
Anibeze, who spoke on “AI Integration in Nigerian Universities: AI Competencies for 21st-Century Graduates and Strategic Implications for ESUT,” however, cautioned that AI adoption must not undermine academic integrity, human judgment, ethics or the quality of education.
He said AI was rapidly transforming how people learn, work, govern, innovate and create value, urging universities to move beyond merely adopting AI tools to understanding, regulating and harnessing the technology responsibly.
Anibeze noted that generative AI was already changing how students search for information, write, analyse data and solve problems, while employers were increasingly demanding graduates capable of working effectively with digital and AI-enabled systems.
He said Nigerian universities must therefore prepare students not only to use AI but also to evaluate, govern and innovate with the technology.
According to him, the emerging curriculum direction should place greater emphasis on ICT orientation, AI promotion, skills acquisition, entrepreneurship and the deployment of emerging technologies to equip graduates with competencies required in the 21st century.
Anibeze said the new direction was towards systematic, institution-wide integration of AI into the Nigerian university system, covering AI-enabled teaching and learning, AI-supported research and innovation, curriculum development, ethical and responsible AI use, as well as collaboration among universities, government and industry.
Also, in a virtual presentation, Dr. Dhamir Mannai of Vertex Labs, Doha, Qatar, said AI was no longer an option for university staff and students.
Mannai said the learning blueprint would be structured to enable students to “co-think” with AI, stressing that while AI could not replace humans, it was faster at collating and processing data.
He said programmes to be taught under the partnership agreement with ESUT would expose students to the fundamentals of AI and enable them to become creators of AI applications.
Earlier, the University Registrar, Ambrose Ugwu, said the workshop, the third in a series organised for staff training, would enable the university community to review its academic programmes during the current academic session and identify areas requiring improvement.
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