Bayero University Kano : BUK

Bayero University, Kano, grew from Ahmadu Bello College, which was established in 1960 within the School for Arabic Studies in the old city of Kano. When Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was created in 1962, the college was renamed Abdullahi Bayero College. In 1964 it moved to a temporary site at the old Kano Airport Hotel and admitted its first ten undergraduate students into a Bachelor of Arts programme of Ahmadu Bello University. That first group graduated in 1966, while the college continued as a faculty of ABU. The institution later moved to its permanent site on the Kano-Gwarzo road. In 1975, Abdullahi Bayero College became a University College with authority to award degrees on behalf of ABU and with its own Governing Council. In 1977, the Federal Government raised university colleges to full university status; the institution became Bayero University, Kano, with the legal framework later backed by BUK Decree No. 79 of 1979. Dr Mahmud Tukur, the University College's principal, served as the pioneer Vice-Chancellor and helped lay the foundation for the permanent university. BUK's history therefore links Arabic and Islamic education, the growth of northern Nigerian higher education and the development of a comprehensive federal university with a major teaching, research and community-service role.