HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING

The department of Urban and Regional Planning was established in August, 2013 alongside the departments of Architecture, Estate Management, Quantity Surveying and Surveying and Geo-informatics. The five departments make up the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Ilorin. The Faculty runs a five (5) year B.Sc. degree programme. The pioneer Dean who nurtured Faculty was Prof. Nurain Bolanle Tanimowo who was a visiting professor from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State. He is an erudite professor, with a resolute spirit for pioneering good things and who is never afraid of hard work. The Department commenced full academic activities in the 2013/2014 session with Dr. Maimuna Orire Abdulraheem as the pioneer coordinator. A woman with sterling qualities, an astute administrator, who judiciously deployed the limited resources available at inception, to set the department on a rock-solid foundation for excellence.

The 2013/2014 academic session commenced in the department with five (5) academic staff members and one technical staff. This was made up of a Visiting Professor, one (1) Lecturer I, two (2) Lecturer II, one (1) Assistant lecturer, and one (1) technical staff. In recent years the Department has witnessed enviable growth in the number of its academic and technical staff. Currently, nine (9) full-time academic staff, one (1) professor on sabbatical, four (4) adjunct Lecturers, and two (2) Technical staff serve the department. At inception, the department commenced the B.Sc. Urban and Regional Planning programme with 25 students. Over the years, the students' population has grown in size (see Table 3.1). The Department graduated 23 of the first batch of students in October, 2018. Currently, it has a total of 133 students at various levels of their academic programme.

The vision of the Department

The vision of the Department is to be a reputable centre of excellence in education, research and community services. 

The mission of the Department

The mission of the Department is to train scholars and professionals of international repute in urban and regional planning with a high level of skills required to solve the problems of cities of the 21^st century.

The Programme Philosophy 

Urban and Regional Planning is a professional discipline which deals with the art and science of ordering and managing land use, environment, based on detailed understanding and analysis of societal needs, within the socio-economic and environmental management framework. The problems of the 21^st-century settlements are diverse, complex and dynamic. Urban planning  seeks to address the problems of contemporary human settlement by producing competent Urban Planners with adequate skills to manage human settlement.  The programme philosophy is to provide prospective students with a broad-based knowledge in urban planning through a well-structured training curriculum. The intention is to produce highly skilled executive and technical manpower for Nigeria as a nation. At the end of the course, graduates would have understood the fundamental principles of planning and acquired enough practical experience to fit into the Urban Planning profession with a capability for both public and private practice.

Some simple maxims that could be proposed for Urban and Regional Planning are that it is futuristic, environment and people-oriented. Thus a very concise and simple way of defining the discipline is that it is planning the environment for the benefit, health and comfort of human inhabitants. The principle defined above has been adopted in fashioning out of the curriculum for Urban and Regional Planning in this Department for three major reasons:

1. To correct the hitherto strong-in-theory-weak-in-practice characteristics of the curriculum of the discipline in existing traditional Universities in Nigeria.

2. The environments differ in their content, habitation and utilization and hence need to be treated following the peculiar rules governing their usage in particular cultural milieus:

3. That the physical Planners must be conscious of its continuous change in the future and that it requires continuous modification to meet the dynamic needs of the society.

 The Programme Objectives

The broad objective of the programme is to produce world-class professional planners who are well equipped to effectively and efficiently render services in different specialized areas of urban and regional planning necessary for the socio-economic and physical development of the society.

The specific objectives are to:

1. Provide advanced education and training which will assist in developing students’ intellectual and professional capacities to a high standard.

2. Maintain a conducive environment and the necessary infrastructure required for teaching and research in urban and regional planning and other related areas.

3. Maintain a curriculum that is capable of enriching the professionals-in-the-making with adequate theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for the profession.

4. Instill moral values and professional ethics and ethos at different stages of the education and training offered.

Headship of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning Since the Inception

1. Dr Maimuna O. Abdulraheem Jan 2014 – Feb 2015
2. Mr M. Y. Jimoh Feb 2015 – Mar 2016
3. Dr A. I. Bako July 2016 – July 2018
4. Dr Maimuna O. Abdulraheem July 2018 – July 2020
5. Dr A. B. Ola July 2020 – Date