The Senate of the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, approved the commencement of Postgraduate Programs in the University in the 1991/92 academic session based on proposals from the Colleges of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Management Technology (then), Agronomy, Animal Science and Engineering. The Postgraduate programs, on commencement, were then administered by a Senate Ad-hoc Committee comprising all Deans of Colleges, the Registrar and Prof. F. O. I. Anugwa, who was Chairman of the Committee and Coordinator of the programs.
. Within five years, the work of handling Postgraduate programs (processing of admissions, supervising academic activities, including examination administration etc.) became rather enormous for an Ad-hoc Committee. Consequently, at its 84th Regular meeting held on the 27th November, 1996, Senate considered and approved the establishment of a Postgraduate School (PGS) for the University.
Consequent upon this the Postgraduate School started operation as a full-fledged academic unit in the University in the 1996/97 academic session with the following objectives:
1. To offer education beyond the Bachelor’s degree level to those who aspire to become intellectual leaders in their professions and in the various fields of teaching and research.
2. To help in providing manpower for national development in relation to Federal and State Governments, public corporations, industries and the private sector generally.
3. To assist Departments in the University improve training programs for staff.
4. To provide training courses for staff in Government ministries and the public sector mostly in the areas of Postgraduate Diploma Programs.
5. To assist postgraduate students in developing and pursing individual educational programs requiring superior accomplishments through carefully directed intellectual activities.
6. To sensitize researchers to the pressing needs of farmers, agro-industrialists and consumers with respect to production processing, storage and consumption technologies.
7. To train needed manpower that is consistent with the requirements of integrated research collaborations.
The first Dean of the Postgraduate School was Prof. M.C. Njike (now late) whose appointment spanned from October, 1996 to November, 2002; from November, 2002 till February. 2007 the Dean was Professor A. O. Nwankiti, who handed over to Professor O. Amali in the Acting capacity. Thereafter Engr. Professor E. I. Kucha took over as Dean from February, 2008 to November, 2012 when Prof. Elizabeth U. Amuta succeeded him until April, 2018. The current Dean is Prof. Rufus Sha’Ato.
The first phase of the Postgraduate School had the primary aim of establishing its roles and operational procedures and modalities. The second phase witnessed expansion of its programs when other Colleges, including Science, Forestry and Fisheries and Food Technology (now Food Technology and Human Ecology) came on board. In due course, programs in the College of Agricultural and Science Education were also added; programs in other Colleges were further expanded to include those in the Departments of Home Science and Management, Civil Engineering, Forest Production and Products, Social and Environmental Forestry and Wildlife and Range Management and in the College of Veterinary Medicine. With the establishment of the College of Management Sciences postgraduate programs in the Departments of Business Administration, Accounting and Finance and Agribusiness came on board.
Despite the challenging teaching and research environment in FUAM as it is with Nigerian academia generally, the PGS has, since inception, graduated well over 250 Ph.Ds, 1,870 Masters and 1,492 Postgraduate Diplomas and is still counting.
Going forward, the School is now preoccupied with the task of streamlining its programs and activities in line with the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) guidelines and Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS). In addition, the School looks to patenting of research breaks-through with eventual commercialization, to boost the University’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); there is also the vision to establish an advanced multidisciplinary research laboratory to foster sustained research in the Departments and reduce requests from our students to conduct research outside the University.
On infrastructure, from a few rooms as offices at inception, today the PGS has its own building with the prospect for a new, bigger building to accommodate staff offices, central postgraduate library for theses and books (with e-component) and a main auditorium and Seminar rooms.