Profile

On March 9, 2020, Professor Afam Icha-Ituma was announced as the second Vice-Chancellor of Coal City University. Prior to his appointment, he was the Dean of Faculty of Management and Social Sciences, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI), Ebonyi State, a position in which he championed effective governance, transformative teaching and multidisciplinary research in collaboration with his academic and professional service colleagues in the faculty.

Professor Afam Icha-Ituma has a solid record of achievement in senior leadership roles in higher education and has played a significant part in shaping the strategy, operations and culture of AE-FUNAI since the inception of the University. He brings a compelling blend of national leadership and global perspective to the position having served AE-FUNAI as pioneer Director of Academic Planning, pioneer Director of Centre for Entrepreneurship and Employability, pioneer Director Centre for Internationalization, linkages and global ranking, pioneer Dean Faculty of Education and member of the University Governing Council. He has served as chairman of many major committees in AE-FUNAI including University Strategic Planning Committee, Academic Programmes Review Committee, Committee on Productivity of Professors and Committee on Review of Guidelines for Appointment and Promotion of Academic Staff. He has also been instrumental in driving through a number of key initiatives to enhance standards of student learning experience, academic processes of the University and strengthening of the University’s performance. He initiated collaborative partnerships for the University, and successfully championed efforts to enhance the University’s national and international standing and ranking. He has also been involved in many pedagogical developments throughout his career, implementing problem-based learning curricular, research-led teaching, inclusive learning approaches, creating learning communities, leading staff development programmes and participating in quality enhancement initiatives in a number of British and Nigerian Universities.

Professor Afam Icha-Ituma started his academic career in the United Kingdom as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Brunel University (UK). He held academic posts as Lecturer at Brunel University, Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University (UK), Academic Consultant at Mountbatten Institute (UK) and Professor of Human Resource Management at AE-FUNAI. He has taught extensively at undergraduate level, postgraduate level and in-company executive programmes in various parts of the world. Despite a significant administrative load, he has always been an active researcher. His research is characterized by a strong theoretical emphasis on the relationship between societal institutions, human resource management systems and outcomes. It has a specific emphasis on how societal institutions shape career development systems and organisational productivity in non-Western context, particularly Nigeria. He has published extensively in leading business & management journals on these research themes and is frequently invited as a keynote speaker at national and international conferences. He has also been the recipient of national and international grants and has successfully supervised a number of MSc and PhD students in the United Kingdom.

He has vast international experience and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Kingston Business School (UK), Visiting Fellow at the University of Leiden (Netherlands), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of London (UK), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), Erasmus+ Visiting Professor at the University of Kent (UK) and Linnaeus-Palme academic visitor at the University of Gavle (Sweden). Professor Icha-Ituma has served as external examiner at the University of Manchester, University of Northumbria, University of Wales and Pan-Atlantic University and professorial assessor at Nigeria Defense Academy, Pan-Atlantic University among others. He is a member of the Editorial Board of many leading journals in his field, including Management and Organisation Review (published by Cambridge Press) and acts as a regular reviewer for many top tier journals in management and social sciences. He is the founder of Research Scholars Forum, an inter-disciplinary research forum that aims to galvanise the vibrant but dispersed community of Nigerian scholars focusing on interdisciplinary dimensions related to sustainable organisational performance, economic growth and development of Nigeria. The forum brings together a critical mass of leading Nigerian scholars based in academic institutions in Africa, Europe, North America and Asia to tackle national challenges and harness opportunities through scholarship and knowledge sharing. Prof Icha-Ituma earned his BSc in Mass Communication from ESUT (Nigeria), MBA from University of Leicester (UK), PhD in Human Resource Management from Brunel University (UK) and Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning from Brunel University (UK). He is a Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy. He and his wife, Enuma Icha-Ituma, have one daughter and three sons. He was raised in Enugu where his late father served the state as the first Deputy Governor.