About this School

The School of General Studies is to a large extent responsible for the uniqueness of the academic programme of the University of Nigeria, which has earned it various encomiums. The history of the school of General Studies in the University of Nigeria is ineluctably connected with the life and experience of the great Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. His experience and contact with and involvement in a panoptic and rich academic world gave birth to the dream of a broad-base university educational programme.

He had the strong belief that only a university with a broad-based educational programme now popularly known as “General Studies” (GS) as its backbone could meet the recommendations of the Phelps-Stokes Commission on African education: that such an institution should be determined by the ability to develop the resources of the country, household arts, sound recreation, rudiments of knowledge, character development, community responsibility, access to the great truths of philosophy, the physical and social sciences and the inspiration of history, literature and the arts. Therefore, the GS programme of the University of Nigeria is a spirited effort to achieve these lofty aspirations within the framework of liberal higher education.

The School of general studies is housed in the George Marion Johnson Building, named in honour of the first Vice-Chancellor of the University. The School is made up of four units, each hosting a group of specialists in the particular fields of learning that are appropriate to the branch of scholarship or science that such a Unit caters to. The Unit are Humanities, Natural Science, Social Sciences and the Use of English. Each Unit has Coordinator, who serves as both the administrative and academic head. The School of General Studies (SGS) is lead by a Dean and has a Faculty Status.