How AU Forced us to Change our Name- VC

The Vice-Chancellor, Pan-African University, Prof. Juan Elegido, has explained why the institution had to change its name to Pan-Atlantic University.

Briefing the media at the Victoria Island campus of the university, he said the decision to take a new name was necessitated by the creation of an institution with a similar name by the African Union.

He said, “In 2008, the AU established a Pan-African University that is meant to be a network of universities across Africa. One implication was that here in Nigeria, there would be two Pan-African Universities.

“The first, a private university based in Lagos and owned by the Pan-African University Foundation and which had been in existence since 2002, and the second, a node of the AU-supported institution, which would operate from the University of Ibadan.”

According to the VC, efforts to get the AU to change the name of its institution recorded no success.

“Once it became clear that we could not get the AU to alter its decision, we decided to change our name,” he said. “This is because the confusion which could arise from sharing our name with another institution would be damaging for everyone concerned.  In choosing ‘Pan-Atlantic University’, we were mindful of its closeness to the former name and of the fact that we can retain the acronym, PAU.”

The Pan-Atlantic university currently has three teaching and research units: Lagos Business School, School of Media and Communication and Enterprise Development Centre. The new name, according to Elegido, has already been approved by the University’s Governing Council and the National Universities Commission.