- Department of Sociology |Faculty of Social Sciences
The Department of Sociology, Ahmadu Bello University was established in 1967. It has since then, in its teaching and research activities, distinguished itself by its conscious policy of Africanization. The first set of three students graduated in June 1970. The department students’ intake has continued to expand to a level where the department is now graduating on the average between 100 and 150 students every year at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Although the initial focus was to train high level manpower to fill the administrative, personnel and social welfare arms of the public sector, the department later broadened its curriculum to include courses designed to produce graduates who would fit into a broader spectrum of jobs in the civil service (Federal, State and Local), the parastatals, para-military organizations (e.g. police, customs, prisons, immigration, road safety corps etc) tertiary institutions, research institutes, private companies and corporations, media organizations, non-governmental organizations and international agencies.
The Department believes that its niche lies in providing a learning environment in which students acquire (a) insights into competing economic theories, underlying values and methodology, (b) capacity for investigating basic and applied economic phenomena and problems, (c) generalized and specialized problem solving skills, (d) capacity to start and grow businesses, (e) capacity for public policy analysis and (f) capacity to offer economic adviser to economic entities – individuals, households, businesses, governments and international organizations. The Department thus, believes in a synergic balance between (a) theory, tools and practice and (b) between universality and spatial uniqueness. To this end, the courses structure prepares students for (a) postgraduate work, (b) employment in private sector, (c) employment in public sector and (d) self-employment. It is interesting that a study by Garba, Arebgeyen and Usman (2004) found that students in the Department ranked postgraduate studies in economics first as their preferred options after graduation. Second was further study in business, law and accounting while employment in private and public sector were third and fourth respectively.