By Amindeh Blaise Atabong, October 20, 2016
Cameroon Journal, Buea – The University of Buea Chapter of the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education, SYNES UB, has opened up on the planned split of UB’s largest faculty – Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, FSMS, into four new faculties.
In an October 15 communiqué sent to our newsroom, SYNES UB officials stated that the syndicate was informed the Ministry of Higher Education intends to create new Faculties out of the present FSMS.
In the communiqué signed by SYNES UB President and Secretary General James Abangma and Fontem Neba, respectively, the lecturers noted that a Special Committee has been setup to finalise the possible options and come out with the university lecturers’ position. Nonetheless, SYNES UB insisted that the Faculty of Social Sciences has to be preserved for cultural reasons.
A similar concern had earlier been raised by the Senate of FSMS. During an October 5 meeting chaired by the Dean of FSMS, Prof. Martha S. Tumnde, the Senate didn’t support the new formulation of three structures with new classifications.
The Cameroon Journal gathered the proposal to merge the Social Sciences with the Arts to form a new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Humanities, did not augur well to the Senate.
Local media had reported that the Senate held that the planned merger of the Social Sciences with the Arts had no scientific basis as they were independent faculties in English speaking Universities. Also, they argued that the latter and Social Sciences are distinctly different in content and approach.
In addition, the Senate argued that the splitting of FSMS was to decongest its size, and as such merging the Departments of Geography, Women and Gender Studies, Sociology and Anthropology and Political Science and Public Administration with the Faculty of Arts would also lead to congestion of the proposed new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Lecturers are suggesting that it will not be proper to remove the designation “Social Sciences” which has been used since the inception of the University of Buea because the appellation “Social Sciences” reflects the Anglo-Saxon tradition and dream of education and not Arts and Social Sciences as obtains in the Francophone system.
Other establishments to be calved out of FSMS are the Faculties of Law, Economics and Management, Law School and School of Journalism and Mass Communication, we learned.
Other Matters
SYNES UB announced that the syndicate is verifying whether payments for the third quarter of Research Modernization Allowance have commenced, before an industrial action could begin should the payments not have begun after October 15.
The lecturers also frowned at the poor funding of the University. “For several years, subsidies have been very small and the situation is having a biting effect on teachers as bonuses cannot be paid on time. The GA noted that more and more teachers are parking their cars and moving on foot. Some lecturers’ cars have even run empty on campus, a situation that doesn’t speak well of our intelligentsia,” the communiqué read in part.
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