The Department of Sociology was established by the University in the 2006/2007 academic session. Teaching commenced in February 2007 with thirty-five students. The first head of department, Dr J.E. Gyong along with then Mrs Anthonia Silas Baduku and Mrs Hauwa’u Evelyn Yusuf (now Dr. Anthonia Silas Baduku and Professor Hauwa’u Evelyn Yusuf respectively) were the pioneer taff who started the department. A year later, they were joined by Mr. Amos James Akpokos (now Professor Amos James Akpokos) and Mrs. Christiana Kantiyok (now retired). Since then, the tenure staff has grown from four to 29. The staff strength is usually complemented by adjunct staff engaged from other departments within the University. Currently, the Department has 7 Professors, 12 Senior Lecturers, 6 Lecturer I and 8 Lecturer II to Assistant Lecturers, making a total number of 33 staff.
In its 17 years of existence the department has graduated about 12 sets of students, the first set graduated in 2010. Since inception, The number of students’ enrolment has multiplied several-fold, and today, it has about 921 core sociology students. This is apart from the hundreds of students from other departments and faculties taking sociology courses from levels 1 and 2.
The underlying philosophy of the programme remains close to the very humanistic concerns that played a critical role in the development of sociology as a scientific and an academic discipline. More specifically, the programme is designed to enable students gain a thorough grasp of sociological theories and methods; develop and sharpen their critical judgement as well as their observational, analytical and interpretative skills; and develop in them an ability to relate theory to practice with particular reference to developing societies in general and Nigeria in particular.
In 2009, the NUC Visitation panel could only grant the Department interim accreditation on account of a number of reasons. Since 2009 however, the Department has improved teaching, research and learning facilities that have on the whole made its Degree Programme more qualitative and user friendly than it has ever been. Some of the measures taken include improvement in both the quality and quantity of academic staff, improving office and class room space as well as funding. There has also been a tremendous increase in expenditure on books and journals as well as the availability of E-Library facilities that provide access to e-Journals and books for research and instruction. Consequently, the Department received full accreditation status in 2012 and 2017.
