History of the Department
The Department of Arabic and French has run one of the pioneer Academic programmes of the University since it was established in 2009. The two programmes (Arabic and French) were initially under the Department of Languages and Literary Studies till 2013. In 2017, Arabic and French were merged with English and Linguistics to form the Department of Linguistics, African and European Languages till June 2021. Arabic and French at that time (2021) were put together to form the Department of Arabic and French which is still obtainable till the present moment.
The pioneer Head of the Department was Professor Femi Abiodun between 2009 and 2010; followed by Prof. Mary Kolawole between 2010 and 2014; Prof. Moshood M. Jimba from 2014 to 2020 and currently, Professor Salih M. Jum’ah Alaso as the Head of the Department from 2020 till date.
The Department has two units namely: Arabic Studies and French Studies. The French unit is headed by Dr. Abdulrahman Burour Ibrahim while the Arabic unit is superintended by the Head of the Department. Aside from the undergraduate degree programmes run in each of the units, there are currently postgraduate programmes for Arabic Studies at the Master’s, M.Phil and Ph.D. levels. The overall student population in the undergraduate programmes is presently about 450 for both the department and from other departments while for the postgraduate programmes, it is about 53 students.
Vision Statement
To put KWASU in the foremost institutions by empowering students of Arabic and French to acquire character, values and language skills that facilitate cross-cultural communication.
Mission Statement
To be the fulcrum of a knowledge-driven society, building competence through creativity that places Nigeria on the frontline in the Committee of Nations.
Goals
The goals of the Department are to produce global citizens capable of communicating effectively in Arabic and French, thus making it possible for Nigeria to contribute fully its quota to the development of Humanities in National and International affairs. Other goals of the department are to:
- produce students who are skilful in the major language skills, namely Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Translating in one of the two languages (Arabic and French).
- develop manpower in the field of Language Arts, Communication and International Affairs.
- empower the students to be self-reliant using Arabic or French skills as a basis.
- prepare graduates of Arabic or French for further studies in the relevant academic and professional disciplines.
- prepare graduates who will be capable of teaching Arabic or French languages at different levels of education.
- equip graduates with communicative competencies that will make them professional translators, broadcasters and career diplomats who will be useful in Foreign Services particularly in the neighbouring African countries and the Arab world as well as enable them to perform effectively in the Tourism industry and international entrepreneurship.