At the start of the University in 2011, Humanities began as a Department housing ‘History and International Studies’ and ‘English and Communication Studies’ as Programmes. As the University grew, the Units now metamorphosed into Departments in the then Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and later in the year 2020 the ‘Faculty of Humanities was unbundled from the existing Faculty as an independent Faculty in the University.

The two (2) Departments in the Faculty of Humanities had existed alongside those in the Social Sciences under the same Faculty – the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences – which was one of the foundational Faculties at the commencement of academic activities in the University. The Faculty has been led by very seasoned academics, including Professors Philomena E. Ejele, Diri  I. Teilanyo, Saviour N. Agoro and Benjamin O. Okaba.

Following the ‘unbundling of the Faculty, two (2) Faculties – the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Okechukwu Edward Okeke was appointed the first Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. He handed over to the present Dean, Professor Akachi Cornelius Odoemene, who was appointed in April 2021.

Currently having only two Departments – the Department of English and Communication Studies, and the Department of History and International Studies, the Faculty of Humanities has graduated five (5) sets of students. The pioneer stream graduated in the 2015/2016 academic session. The Faculty currently has a student-population of close to one thousand (1,000).

In respect of academic staff members, the Faculty boasts of ten (10) Professors, seven (7) Senior Lecturers and fourteen (14) staff of the other ranks. Twelve (12) of these non-professorial staff members hold Ph.D Degrees. The Faculty’s non-teaching staff strength stands at thirty-three (33) – twenty-six (26) Senior Staff and seven (7) Junior Staff members spread across the Dean’s Office and the two Departments.

The two Departments under the Faculty have faced two (2) Accreditation Exercises (back-to-back) in 2015 and 2020 – for their Undergraduate Programmes by the National Universities Commission (NUC). In both exercises, the Departments had Full Accreditation, essentially due to the strength and resilience of their personnel and programmes. Similarly, the proposals by the Departments for the commencement of Postgraduate Programmes at both Masters and Doctoral levels received a positive nod by the NUC after a rigorous Resource Verification Exercise in 2021. Consequently, PG Programmes would commence in both Departments in the 2021/2022 Academic Session.

The Faculty of Humanities is poised to welcome a few other Departments in the near-future. These include the Departments of Philosophy, Theatre and Film Studies, Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, and, Journalism and Media Studies. With these, the Faculty would be better positioned to continue to deliver on its mandate in academic quality and excellence in the spheres of the humanities.