The Department of Food Science and Technology was established in 1980 within the Faculty of Agriculture with Prof. H. O. A, Osman as the Pioneer Head of Department. Other members of staff included Dr. J. Makowski, S. U. Khattah, J.O. Igene and S. M. Moshen. These dedicated staff laid a solid foundation for a virile department. The Department was designed to run a five-year post GCE O/L and a four-year GCE A/L undergraduate programmes. The department was specifically established to meet the challenges posed by the serious post-harvest food losses and to provide agricultural manpower for the agro-allied industries among others. The Department is therefore at the forefront in the war against hunger and malnutrition, not only in the North, but also in the whole of Nigeria. Initially, the Department operated the joint award of a general degree in Agriculture with 1 ½ years of specialization as an option in Food Science and Technology. Following a directive of the University of Maiduguri Governing Council in 2007, the department was moved from the Faculty of Agriculture to that of Engineering. As usually with such administrative reorganizations, certain formal changes and modifications became implicit on the part of the Department of Food Science and Technology in order to ensure reasonable academic uniformity with the existing Departments. On the other hand, there were also perceived changes and modifications on the part of the Faculty of Engineering to accommodate this new Department and to give it a sense of belonging. The Department now runs a five year B.Sc programme in Food Science and Technology with six months of industrial attachment programme forming an essential part of the curriculum. This programme is fully accredited by the National University Commission (NUC). The undergraduate programme has become very well consolidated with abundant human and material resources now at our disposal; Over the years, a lot of highly skilled and experienced staff were employed. All of these have returned to their countries at the expiration of their contract or have moved to “greener pasture”. The University of Maiduguri has remained a leader in the development of Food Science and Technology at the degree and postgraduate level in the Northern part of Nigeria. It was the first University to establish not only the B.Sc Programme in Food Science and Technology in the North, but was also the first to establish the M.Sc and Ph.D Programmes in 1988/89 and 1996/97 sessions respectively in this field. This has satisfied the desire to contribute to the development of the University and the Nation at higher levels. A number of able, hardworking and dedicated academics have had the opportunity of heading the department at various times starting from Prof. H.O.A. Osman in 1980/81 to Dr. A. L. Kassum, in 2019/20 to date sessions respectively. With an initial intake of about 10 students in 1980, the department had graduated over 716 students at undergraduate level by the end of 2020/2021 Academic Session and out of this, 5% passed through the post graduate Programmes. Mission Statement To develop and train highly competent Food Scientists and Technologists as well as Researchers for public and private sectors of the economy in Nigeria and beyond especially in the North-East sub-region of Nigeria. Vision Statement To be at the forefront in the war against hunger and poverty through meaningful research aimed at producing enough, affordable and stable food supply by the year 2030.With this in mind, the Faculty of Engineering in the University of Maiduguri was established on 1st October 1983 with three Departments, namely Civil and Water Resources Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. However, the enrollment of students into the new Faculty commenced a year later, that is, in 1984/85 session. The Department of Agricultural and Environmental Resources Engineering, (formerly known as Agricultural Technology and Agricultural Engineering), which had been operational in the Faculty of Agriculture since 1977, was transferred to
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