Brief History of University of Port Harcourt

When the University of Port Harcourt opened its doors in the late 1970s as an academic institution, Management Sciences did not exist, although there was a department of Business Studies attached to Social Sciences that provided skeletal training and preparation for students interested in Business Studies. The Department of Business Studies was very short lived. It was soon to be phased out by the Faculty of Social Sciences because its implied philosophy of “Capitalism” was inconsistent with the philosophy of “Modified Socialism” which the leaders of the faculty preached.
While the Faculty of Social Sciences was busy phasing out the Department of Business Studies, the Oil Companies, notably the refineries were contacting the University of Port Harcourt and requesting top level management training and programmes for their executives and engineers. This need informed the engagement of Professor Lucius in 1980 to design and develop an MBA programme that would meet the needs of the oil companies, the generality of the Nigerian public, the NUC and the Nigerian University system.
The programme started with four functional areas, namely, Accountancy, Finance & Banking, Management and Marketing. The Harvard style MBA was a Graduate School for MBA without undergraduate base. With the MBA programme, the University of Port Harcourt saw the birth of a new School of Business, the Graduate School of Management and Business Administration with Professor Lucius as its first Dean.
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Professor Lucius relentlessly enriched the programme content of the Department of Business Studies in Social Sciences by teaching courses like International Marketing, on part-time basis, to the B.Sc students. The part-time programme provided the flexibility and convenience needed by the working engineers and executives of various industries to undertake the MBA degree programme. Since the MBA degree programme had the interests of engineers and industrial executives in mind during its inception, the programme content was highly quantitative. It was a two-year degree programme in which the first 10 courses of the first year were preparatory pre-requisite courses while the second 10 courses of the second year were highly specialized.
In 1984, a significant development shaped the future of the Graduate School of Management and Business Administration and led to the birth of a new Faculty in the University of Port Harcourt. The NUC approved the School of Graduate Studies for the University of Port Harcourt to oversee all graduate degree programmes in all departments of the University. In the circumstances the existence of another, mainly, Graduate School of Management and Business Administration (GSMBA) had to be phased out or alternatively GSMBA should design and with immediate effect implement an undergraduate (B.Sc) programme. This would provide an undergraduate base and quality GSMBA to become another autonomous faculty in the university. This later alternative was quickly embraced by GSMBA since the GSMBA had unsuccessfully tried to get Senate approval to do this over the years. Thus the Graduate School of Management and Business Administration quickly attracted good students from JAMB applicants and started the undergraduate degree programme with specializations, again, in Accountancy, Finance and Banking, Management, and Marketing. Accordingly, these disciplines for both undergraduate and graduate studies in Business Management became a new faculty, called the Faculty of Management Sciences.
As the Faculty of Management Sciences with the largest students’ admission in Nigeria, it has tried to establish leadership and maintain its standards through the following activities.
•    The Faculty has established international affiliations with comparable faculties and colleges of Business in the United States, especially with universities offering complementary programmes. Affiliation efforts will continue to be pursued vigorously in the future. This will enhance dissemination of knowledge internationally and facilitate exchange programmes.
•    The faculty has conceived and is developing the University Business Development Centre at the University of Port Harcourt. This will enhance the economic and consultancy base of the faculty while generally improving the economic future of Port Harcourt and Nigeria.
•    The faculty is currently designing and fine-tuning its most ambitious venture, the Port Harcourt Business School. The Port Harcourt Business School is intended to provide executive, undergraduate, graduate and non-degree certificates. It will attempt to bridge the gap between theory and practice and bring technology to bear on particular problems.
•    In the academic front, many ambitious steps are under consideration, and it will be revealed as they approach actualization. Meanwhile plans have reached advanced stages for the establishment of a department of Actuarial Sciences in the faculty. Also, undergraduate and graduate programmes in Transportation and Shipping, Hospitality Management and Entrepreneurship are soon to be established in the faculty.
All the new areas of “Academic Diversification” are intended to broaden the Faculty’s scope of contribution to knowledge and human development and complement existing academic programmes.
The Faculty of Management Sciences is structured with the Dean as the Academic Director-General. The Faculty has had 8 substantive Deans apart from those in acting capacity since its inception.

The Vision of Faculty of Management Sciences
It is our vision to become a reference world-class citadel of learning, training and research; where men and women of all descent may draw first-class inspiration and service for the good of the global community
Faculty Philosophy
We believes in the attainment of excellence in all endeavours including academic, teaching, research, consultancy, service to mankind etc. through the combination of forces of diligence, unity and tenacity of purpose, attention to rigour and details and the fear of God. For short: Excellence through diligence, unity and tenacity of purpose, rigour and fear of God.
Mission Statement
“It shall be the corporate mission of the Faculty of Management Sciences to attain the status of a world-class centre for human capital development, knowledge creation and dissemination, and expert advisory and consultancy service offerings to students and clients locally and internationally using the best available methods and facilities that prevailing technology can accommodate”
Faculty Strategic Objectives
Our strategic objectives are as follows:

1. To provide human-capital development services to students through teaching, learning, counselling, supervision, and exchange of programmes with both local and foreign tertiary institutions and research centres’.
2. To provide human capital development and advisory services to clients in the major areas of Management Sciences, namely Accounting, Actuarial Science and Insurance, Finance, Banking, Management, Marketing and Information Systems and Technology, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality Management and Tourism
3. To protect, promote and advance the knowledge of Management Sciences through research, teaching, conferences, seminars, workshops, inter-varsity and inter-country visitations, fellowship, and co-operations.
4. To explore and utilize opportunities and cooperation with relevant reputable professional bodies in the nominated areas of management sciences in a bid to bring the academia and the industry together in the wheel of progress and concerted development.
5. To cause to be published reputable newsletters, periodicals, journals bulletin and or books that will contribute to the promotion of the above objectives.

Source: Wikipedia

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