About Us

History

The Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences was established in June 2008 with Senate approval as an unprecedented innovative way of converging all fields’ communication and information under one umbrella of a Faculty. Thus, the Faculty, when it was established, was one of its kinds in the Nigeria university system, and it remains the only one of its kinds up-to-date in Nigeria. The laudable dream and vision of the Faculty was conceptualized by Professor Isha’aq Oloyede, who was at the time of establishing the Faculty, the Vice-Chancellor of the University.

Thus, in establishing the Faculty, the Department of Computer which was hitherto in the old Faculty of Physical Sciences was pulled out of the Faculty just like the Department of Mass Communication was pulled out of the old Faculty of Business and Social Sciences to be the foundational Departments in the new Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences. The other three Departments that constituted the Faculty were newly established at the point of establishing the Faculty. Thus, the Faculty is made up of five Departments offering communication-related courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The Departments are: Computer Sciences (originally in the old Faculty of Physical Sciences), Mass Communication (originally in the old Faculty of Business and Social Sciences), Library and Information Science (newly established at the inception of the Faculty), Telecommunication Science (newly established at the inception of the Faculty) and Information and Commination Science (now Department of Information Technology, and which was established at the inception of the Faculty).

The Faculty commenced academic operations at the beginning of the 2008/2009 academic session, with Dr (now Professor) Veronica O. Mejabi) as the pioneer Ag. Dean of the Faculty, running undergraduate programmes in Computer Science and Mass Communication, which had started from their old Faculties of Physical Sciences and Business and Social Sciences respectively. The other three newly created Departments commenced their respective programmes in 2010. The Faculty started its academic operations at Block 10 and part of the old Faculty of Education Building, but it eventually moved in 2010 to its permanent Faculty Building, which was the best and most enviable building in the University at the time.

With the successive reign of other Deans like Professor Lenrie Aina, Professor Joseph S. Sadiku, Professor Rasheed G. Jimoh and Professor Adesina L. Azeez, the Faculty had grown in leaps and bounds. They have individually in their different capacities passionately pursued the Faculty’s vision of becoming a flagship Faculty of Communication and Information, and have really pushed the Faculty to the height of scholarship and ranking as desired by the founding fathers of the Faculty.

Today, the Faculty has, indeed, grown remarkably with a fulfillment that the dreams of its founding fathers are not shattered. Each of the Departments in the Faculty had graduated an average of not less than 15 sets, thereby building up a virile and successful alumni body. It has produced two Researchers of the Year in the University while many of its faculties have served the University in various capacities. For instance, the last two successive University Librarians, including the current one, are from the Faculty, while many of our faculties had been released to go on leave of absence to many neighbouring institutions to serve as Vice Chancellors and Librarians. The Faculty has won various grants for impactful research, both from national and international funding agencies, through which the Faculty has built up a commendable and enviable research portfolio.

To reinforce its commitment to research as veritable support for its quality teaching and training, the Faculty publishes International Journal of Information Processing and Communication (IJIPC), an open-access, peer-reviewed, bi-annual journal. The journal’s URL is https://ijipc.net.ng/index.php/ijipc/index In addition, Computer Science also publishes biannually Ilorin Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology (ILJCSIT), Mass Communication publishes biannually as well a journal titled Social Media Discourse while the Department of Library and Information Science also houses a journal known as Ilorin Versity Internation Journal of Library and Information Science.

Without any fear of contradiction, the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences is now a flagship Faculty, which we are very proud of, and which is steadily growing into an enviable center of excellence for communication and information scholarship. The founding fathers of the Faculty shall ever be appreciated for their vision and foresightedness. As the Faculty grows in leaps and bounds, and as it rededicates itself to the vision for which it was established, we shall continue to adore and pray for all the visionary leaders that conceptualised and nurtured the inception of the Faculty. We shall be indebted to them for pioneering this first of its kind faculty in the Nigerian university system with laudable objectives from which we have never derailed. Likewise, we will continue to remember, with a high sense of gratitude, the sacrifices and genuine efforts that our retired past Deans and leaders made to reinforce the pillars that gripped the strong foundation upon which the Faculty has been thriving.