UB Inaugurates New IT Lab to Boost Online Teaching

The University of Buea (UB) has inaugurated an ultramodern IT centre that will enable it to deliver lectures to students in any part of the world.

The new IT lab, inaugurated November 28, is fully equipped with IT gadgets and modern-day technology.

The keys to the building, located within the university campus, were handed over to UB Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ngomo Manga, by Prof Atsa Etoundi Roger, Chief Information Officer of the Ministry of Higher Education.

Prof. Atsa represented the Higher Education Minister, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo.

According to a statement from the University of Buea, the IT Lab will improve its e-learning capacity and online teaching. 

“This Digital Development Centre has an IT infrastructure and network equipment that allows users/students to follow classes and share data with their counterparts in other universities in Cameroon,” Prof. Atsa said during the inauguration.

“It also has a smart classroom where teaching staff can deliver classes/lectures and share with students anywhere,” he added.

UB Backpedaling from Digitalisation?

Despite inaugurating the digital development centre, the University of Buea seems to be moving away from technology and complicating studies for students.

For over a decade, the institution had enabled students to pay fees through mobile money, until recently, when the Vice Chancellor scrapped the online fee payment method.

That system made payment easy for students who could pay from anywhere, so long as they had money in mobile money accounts.

But during the start of the 2024/2025 academic year, UB returned to the banking system, where students now queue in long lines to pay fees at designated banks.

This takes some students several days or even weeks.

Many have complained about the backpedalling, as some students have missed classes because they wanted to pay fees.

Some have also complained of poor treatment at the level of the bank.

However, the university has explained that the bank system was reinstituted to eradicate corruption within the system.

Well, despite the shortcomings, UB’s major activities, ranging from applying for admissions, course registration, and results verification, among other things, remain online.

The new lab will go a long way to wipe out the lapses the institutions encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered classes for months.