1. Student Centeredness - Recruiting and Retaining Students- especially female and regional students: ACENTDFB Experience Prof Yakub K.E. IBRAHIM (ACENTDFB) Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

2. All activities of ACEs are student centred:
Major Focus of ACEs
All activities of ACEs are student centred:
1. Building critical manpower for the economic development of the society
2. Making scientific breakthrough for socio-economic advancement

3. Recruitment Process in ACENTDFB
Online advertisement of admission into programme
Shortlisting of applicants for pre-admission written tests (foreign students exempted from written test)
Oral interview for successful applicants
Foreign applicants are assessed for need for English language support and deficiencies remediation
Appointment of supervisory teams and advisers
Recruitment Process in ACENTDFB

4. Specific Foreign Student Recruitment Channels
Nigerian Embassies through the University’s Distance Learning Centre platform
Regional Collaborating Institutions
Institute for Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Yaoundé, Cameroon
Centre International e Recherde-Development sur l’Elevage en zone Subhumide (CIRDES), Bobo-Doulasso, Burkina Faso
Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), Nigeria

5. Retaining Students
ACENTDFB Student and University Postgraduate Student Handbooks
Institutional policies and governance
Admission and graduation requirements
Examination guidelines and other general rules/ regulations
Annexure-ACENTDFB Specific administrative and research procedures and guidelines
Available and accessible research facilities
Procedures for accessing research materials, facilities and funds
Roles of academic departments, supervisors, advisers and students
Channels for communications
Attendance of conferences, workshops and internship placement
Documentation of interaction with supervisors (log books)

6. Retaining Students Student Participation in Centre Management
Scheduled interactions
Participation in programme evaluation workshops (curriculum review, programme weaknesses and ameliorating strategies)
Formal and informal feedbacks
Establishment of Students WhatsApp groups
Production of Pamphlet on incentives for students with special emphasis on foreign students
English Language support for non-English Language speaking students
Familiarization of students with communities and their culture

7. Support to Students Payment of Tuition fees (foreign students only)
Provision of research consumables
Financial support for bench works at research labs of regional and international collaborating partners
Sponsorship of students for field work
Sponsorship to Scientific conferences & Workshops
Provision of free hostel accommodation (foreign students only- preference given to female students)
Support for Grant writing
Language support for regional students (non-English speaking foreign students only)

8. Processing of visa and travels documents
Other Supports
Rehabilitation and furnishing of a Block of Hostel for Foreign Students
Processing of visa and travels documents
Provision of initial access to communication facilities (mobile phone lines, modems for internet facilities, etc.)