Academic exchange for excellence: JAOF University Institute students shine at internship in Indian varsity.

The exchange programme is one of the fruits of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed between JOAF University Institute of Science and CT University on February 28, 2025.

Speaking to The Guardian Post, the Co-Founder and President of J&A Oben Foundation, who also doubles as Founder/President of JOAF University Institute of Science, JHIS, Prof Julius Oben, said since JHIS has the HND and professional Bachelor's programmes where internship is an integral part of the evaluation, the university decided to give first-year students the opportunity to have their internship in a country where information technology, computer science is one of the top in the world.

“That is basically what we plan to do every year, based on an MoU that we signed with CT University. The MoU is for exchange of staff, students, and exchange of technology as well,” he disclosed.

He added that: “In the 2025-2026 academic year, some lecturers of CT University will visit JHIS and some of our lecturers will also visit CT University to learn new techniques and exchange with new technologies and ways of doing things. The MoU is not limited to software engineering or computer science; it extends to other fields like tourism, nursing, hotel management, catering and different management aspects. The MoU gives opportunity for people registered with us to do higher degrees, right up to PhD with CT University”. 

JHIS scores 100 percent at HND, BTS

Prof Oben also disclosed that JHIS is doing well as far as academic excellence is concerned.

“We had our first batch of HND and BTS students, and it's a pleasure for me that we scored 100% in both the HND and the BTS national exams. This, I think, reflects the quality of the teaching and the seriousness of the students as well,” he noted.

He added that: “The environment, is very appropriate for education. The students are extremely motivated and hardworking. We ensured that every student was able to get an internship, and the reports so far from where they did their internships have been very positive. Even the students who went to India did well. Our partners at CT University were very impressed with the quality of education that they had”. 

“These are first-year students, but they are very competitive and about the same level as the first-year students at CT University of India. We're pleased with our progress, and that's just what we hope to do to maintain the standards the way they are,” Prof Oben noted.

With universities of Bamenda and Dschang as supervisory universities of JHIS, this gives the institution the possibility to do a Master's programme. 

“Presently, we run a Master's programme in Public Health Nutrition, which is the only one in Cameroon. And I don't think anywhere else in Africa do they do Public Health Nutrition at the Master's level. It's a two-year programme supervised by the University of Bamenda. I would say we have the most qualified lecturers in that field teaching on that programme. I am happy about this programme and field because it is something that is in need in the country,” he declared. 

University packed with experienced lecturers

The JHIS Founder/President noted that the university is only young in name, but packed with experience. 

“We have JAOF Foods that has been born out of the university’s food science section. Our students are able to have hands-on training on the manufacturing, transformation of primary products to secondary products. JAOF Foods is a brand that is presently in supermarkets and sold digitally,” he said.

Prof Oben added that: “Interestingly enough, the setting up and selling of these products is done by students in the Marketing department. I couldn't be happier with how professional the training here is and will continue to be. We want to be able to make a difference, and to make young Cameroonians know that it's not only the civil service that is the way forward after their training. There are many options and we want them to be able to stand on their feet’.

JHIS innovates daily payment of school fees

Meanwhile, JHIS has instituted an innovation that makes the payment of fees by parents extremely manageable. 

This follows the signing of an MoU with a microfinance institution, SOBA Finance. This allows parents to make daily payments of a minimal sum of 2,500 FCFA a day.

“I think we are one of the first universities in the country that does this. In the past we had problems where the payments in installments was heavy and burdensome to parents. But with our collaboration with SOBA Finance, we have been able to make it that parents from wherever they are can be able to send 2,500 FCFA a day, to pay towards their children’s fees. All this, is in a bid to make professional raining at the tertiary level interesting and reachable to all Cameroonians no matter the social or financial strata,” Prof Oben noted.

Students hail internship programme

Meanwhile, the students who were on internship have hailed the programme, stating it greatly edified them on their field of study.

One of the JHIS students who CT University, Joseph Benedict Mpa Tarh, said the main project they worked on during the internship in India was on a bank management system.

“While carrying out the project, we respected every step of software engineering, from the analysis and design right up to the testing phase,” he said.

He added that the knowledge they had gained from JHIS made their work on the project easy. 

“We actually took our knowledge on theory and applied it practically in the project. The quality of education at JHIS is almost similar to that of CT University in India. So it was something of a continuation,” Tarh added.

 On her part, Mboh Darias Mpah said during the internship they learned programming language, and other programming concepts like encapsulation, abstruction, class diagrams and also testing, among several others.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3539 of Wednesday August 20, 2025