The Department started in 1975 as sub-department in the Faculty of Physical Sciences, and offered combined degree programmes in:

• Computer Science/Mathematics
• Computer Science/Physics
• Computer Science/Statistics
• The above was dictated by the limitations of structural and infrastructural limitations.

The single honours option started in 1981.  The Department therefore houses three programmes that offer combined honours degrees.  In addition, the Department offers some degree courses for the Vocational Teacher Education (VTE) Department.

Students admitted into the Department through the JAMB and WASC/GCE O-Level (and now through the University Post-JAMB Screening Test) take a minimum of four years and a maximum of six years to get the B.Sc (Hons) Degree in Computer Science, while direct entry students with GCE A-Level or its equivalent also enter the first year of the four-year degree programme and hence take a minimum of four years to get the B.Sc (Honours) Degree.

The Department offers a number of specially designed service courses in Computer Science to all the academic Faculties/Department/Sub-Department in the University. The Department employs modern teaching tools such as multimedia projectors for effective lecture delivery.

The M.Sc and Ph.D programmes were introduced in 1991.  However, only the M.Sc programme took off earlier and a number of M.Sc students have been produced over the years while the Ph.D programme started in 2007.  As part of a dynamic staff development programme, the University of Nigeria signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the TU DELFT University (Netherlands) in November 2005.  The first batch of our staff left for Netherlands in 2007 and came back by the end of 2008.

In 2008, two of our academicstaff went for a training programme on Microsystems Solars and Java Technology organized by NIIT in conjunction with SUN Microsystems for Certification Courses.  They have trained other faculty members at the University Innovation Centre. This programme formed the core of the University Innovation Centre’s Software Entrepreneurship initiation and local development of software in the University.