Meet Prof Isaac Ayii, the Clinical Officer behind fast growing Ayii University

Ayii University is one of accredited Universities in South Sudan . It was established in  in 2014 as a middle level training college , The  Juba Institute of Health Sciences  before it changed to a fully fledged University  in 2021. It started by offering Diploma courses in Health like Clinical Medicine , Nursing and Laboratory Sciences .

Prof Ayii began his basic training at Maridi Health Training Institute graduating with a Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Public Health  before  obtaining a Higher Diploma in ENT Surgery from Mulago School in Uganda . He went on to pursue different Health related courses and finally obtained his PhD in Medical Education from the Atlantic International University .

Narrating his own story , the Chancellor and founder of this University Prof Isaac Ayii Ayii ,  had this to say :

“I am obliged to write on Ayii University(AU) in order to clarify on some issues as many applicants have engaged on receiving and returning application forms physically and online at our website : https://ayiiuniversity.edu.ss as well as many people have started to submit their documents seeking for administrative and teaching vacancy both locally and internationally.

Not only that but also there are social media expert of misinformation and pessimists besides enemies of progress Hence, I have a reason to articulate my vision and mission for the benefit of those seeking knowledge and skills, those seeking employment to support themselves with their families and above all those who like something good emanating in our country.

Starting with the Background and forecasting of the future for AU, on the admission processes, On Staff recruitment process for the University, on the future of Juba Institute of Health Sciences the precursor of Ayii University (AU) and finally to conclude with my Background in Education and Entrepreneurship/ Business venture just for public consumption.

Background of AU

Is accessible in our website: https://ayiiuniversity.edu.ss for more information on background but for the sake of the public consumption and those who might not get access to our website due to internet or skillset problem therefore, I wish to be brief on the background we have arrived from a journey of 7 years experiences from Institute known as Juba Institute of Health Sciences which I founded in 2014 with the aim of training mid level health cadres namely; Clinical Officers, Registered Midwives, Registered nurses, Pharmacy Technicians and Laboratory Technicians among others and later followed up with its upgrading processes which started with, Recommendation by Ministry of Health for us to offer medical degrees as proposed by the former Minister of Health Hon .Dr Riek Gai Kok Kok during our second graduation ceremony on 7th December 2019 for 251 graduates as JIHS according to him had exceedingly left the threshold and expectations of training with quality upon the minister recommendation we had to start the process of upgrading to a University by starting with Ministry Justice Republic of South Sudan for legalization of the name and ended up with Ministry of Higher Education for accreditation, all these processes had there ups and downs like when I started Juba Institute of Health Sciences , one of major setback was the naming , the name Juba would not apply legally again when adding a University since there was already University of Juba and from my previous experience when I name my Institute as Juba Institute of Health Sciences in 2014 , it was the first to be registered with that name by then with the Ministry of Justice, however, in 2015 and 2016 I faced a lot of summons to Change the name to any other name not bearing Juba which according to Central Equatoria state by then it was meant for their Institute opposite the Juba Teaching Hospital, however, we later settled the case amicably by that being called Juba Health Sciences Institute (JHSI), and ours Juba Institute Of Health Sciences(JIHS) therefore, with similar scenario likely to happen alas! we had put a University name to our existing name that has Juba the war would be with the giant public University of Juba for sure , the wisdom did not guide me and the board of Directors to go for obvious war or adopt the western names as most of Africans and South Sudanese would wish names such as Victoria University, St Andrews University, Stanford University, St Lawrence University etc but rather use our local name and in this case we settled for Ayii Name ; which is named after my late father Sultan, Gen Ayii Madut Ayii as a way of honouring for without him taking me to Ethiopia in 1987 at the age of 5 years I won’t have the education that shaped my future leave alone the founding of JIHS which later culminated into AU.

Therefore, since it was private Institution it didn’t need the Parliament or Council of Ministers for Republic of South to Approved My father’s name for the Institution I have founded from scratch through sweat , determination and perseverance as others have been suggesting in Social media platform and therefore, the naming issue is rectified here 

Never the less, the University Motto, Vision, Mission , Specific objectives and core values are well spelt out , you can access them from our website or at our office at our main campus of 5 G storey building second floor but in summary our mission is to produce competent Human Resources through innovation and creativity and we aspire to produce world innovators, Scientists, Inventors and Leaders as such we had to approach it by dividing a University into colleges which shall have faculties as a subset as they rest of proposed colleges shall follow later, for this academic year we have started with College of Medicine and Health Sciences which shall be offering Bachelor Degrees in Medical field for those who are upgrading for which case Diploma in Medicine to Bachelor Of Medicine and Surgery, Diploma in Nursing to Bachelor of Nursing , Diploma in Midwifery to Bachelor of midwifery and Diploma in Medical Laboratory to Bachelor of Medical Laboratory this will cater for upgrading via Diploma Scheme and Direct Entry is for secondary school sciences leavers the cut off percentage being 80% for Medicine, Dental and Pharmacy, 75 % for Nursing, Midwifery and Medical Laboratory Sciences and 70 % for Nutrition and Public health at 60% and above this for those who sat in South Sudan and those in other countries should be equivalent applications shall be done to AU which shall be completed by Ministry of Higher Education by verifying the authentic certificates so as to have students start our lectures comes 16th August for commencing of academic year 2021/22.

As for recruitment of the staff for administrative and teaching positions it shall be based on merit not technical know who and we shall source both international as well as national staff therefore, I advise people to wait for advertisements of positions that shall be out soon and will be handled by recruitment committee headed by Prof Ting August Mayai as quality recruitment based on merits shall be reflected in the graduates after the University Education, and therefore unnecessary submission of application forms for jobs which are inexistent should be abolished as the last few days of our operations applications are flying in at break neck speed both physically and online.

Further more,for Juba Institute of Health Sciences it shall continue training the mid level health cadres as it have been doing before,its administration shall be under the principal and will liaise with the University and ministry of health in management of the Institute for future perspectives the Institute will have branches taken to other the states to bring the services closer to the people in term of quality training of mid level who are the backbone of health services delivery in hard to reach areas of our country.

Lastly but not the least,I would want to conclude with my Childhood, Educational and Entrepreneurship background as the founder of the Institute which later upgraded into Ayii University (AU) as many people would wish to know the brain behind the great JIHS and AU, i was born on 23 March 1982 into the family of late Paramount Chief of Kuac Ayok Mangong of Gogrial West, Warrap State, Sultan ,Maj.Gen Ayii Madut Ayii and his first Wife Mary Abuk Oyoo from Luo(Jurchol) of Western Bharelgazalle State just born one year to the onset of the longest civil war for Sudan that started in 1983, the last born of the nine siblings from mother’s side and hundreds of others from my stepmothers’ side, In 1987 my father took me to Ethiopia when he decided to go with thousands of recruits under his commands to join SPLA/M and upon arrival he left me in the care of my second family of my late Father Solomon Angon Deng and my second mother Nyaluak Rel Dak from Dinka Ngok of Abyei in Itang Ethiopia while he joined the Military training camp in Tharpam in the same year and he later graduated with rank of captain as a commander of Manyangdit Battalion in 1990s, and he went back to Sudan to engaged on a liberation struggle , myself as a prerequisite of continuing with Education in Pinyindo in Ethiopia I was trained as a red army in 1989 in Pinyindo Military training camp before enrolling back to school that year in a nutshell I went through 9 primary schools studying for 9 years in four different countries, chronological from Itang Refugees primary school in Ethiopia 1988 started Primary 1 , from 1989 to 1990, P2 to 3 , in 1991 i entered Pochala Primary school in the current Pibor administrative area and left shortly to Eastern Equatorial where I managed to join Kidepo Primary school in Primary four and by 25th May that year Arab recaptured kapoeta town and being a few kilometers away from Kapoeta we left Kidepo the following day with late Dr John Garang De Mabior convey that came to carry his languages to Pageri on 26th May 1992 and after reaching Pageri we procedure to Lobonok and later settled in Lobojo at Nile river side for the remaining part of 1992, Until the first Juba assault in May 1992 followed by second SPLA in June happened while we were in Lobojo, a place were SPLA/M ferry that used to transport goods and vehicles for Military operation was stationed ,there wasn’t any schools existing in the entire place other than frequent visitation of Antinov and MiG fighter used to bombard us on daily bases with the aim of destroying the only ferry that was used for connecting SPLA liberated areas of Eastern Equatorial to Central and other SPLA liberated areas by then this is how the year 1992 ended besides 1991 with out a promotional exams and later in May 1993, I had I privileges with my second to cross to Kansuk in Kajo Keji County where by virtue of that year being the year I would have been in primary 5 if all things were normal , I decided to claim to be in primary five and therefore, I was enrolled and completed primary five and promoted to Primary 6 without report and being the in first position in the class the only thing I got was the gift in form of exercise books and pens, and towards the eve of new 1994 , Arabs started by recapturing the already areas under SPLA and as it was drawing closure to us we left through mountains and hills in Kajo Keji and a cross the rivernile into Kerepi in Magwi County , Pageri payam and on foot we found ourselves in Mugali via Nimuli were I retried to enrolled in primary six in 1994, and with out take half a year we left to Natinga On foot via Pagee, Loboni, Madope, Saratenya, Latombe, Kilkilia, Lotukee, New Cush and finally Natinga which we reached in 1995 and again enrolled in Primary six , and in May 1995 I left for Kakuma in Kenya where I was made to repeat primary five since I had no evidence of a primary five report card in Sobat Primary School in Kakuma only for second term and I a third term I transferred to nearest Unity Primary schools having burnt my leg with boiling oil while cooking , finally I left kakuma in 1995 on foot up to Loboni to Kitgum and finally completed primary six in Uganda at Mirieyi Refugees Primary schools where I sat my primary leaving examination obtaining a first grade in 1997.

In term of Entrepreneurial skills and businesses skills ,While we were left in Ethiopia life was not that easy we stayed in Itang where I started my primary one which I am not sure up to now whether it nursery or primary as we were writing our alphabets on the sand at the beginning as far as my fragile memory could recall that was in 1988, later in 1989 we transferred with my second family to Pinyindo where the education was much better compared to Itang Refugees where I can recalled too my business/ entrepreneurial skills started when my stepmother Akuac Kuol in 1987 gave me some bira the Ethiopia currency by then when we met at riverside while I was moving with my sister Amona Angon from my second family which I owe credit for laying my childhood foundation particularly my mother Nyaluakdit , what I did with that money I went and bought some mangoes at riverside sold by Anyuak people who were selling at bulky with lower price and together with my sister we want and sold in the market just near river and they were bought quickly and we came back to do the same almost five times before reporting ourselves back home and there i really acquired the skills that I later use further in trading between Mugali and Bibia market where I could go on footing and buy essential goods and sold them in Mugali in the year of 1994, later in Mirieyi Refugees Camp with those of Aciec Benjamin we use to be farming the produce for which money we use for buying clothes and books , in Kocoa seminary under Torit Diocese we were encouraged to be farming and are bought by the seminary for our consumption this one also sharpened ourselves for self-reliance and in fact I bought most of sciences textbooks for my ‘O’level education using that money and there it culminated into first grade in my senior secondary results in 2001 which opens the way for my admission into St Joseph College Layibi in Gulu- Uganda with a Combination of PCBM(Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics) in my advance level hence obtaining principals in 2003.

Finally all this skills of business and Entrepreneurship that i had acquired during my childhood as a way of surviving during difficult live has help me to set up my first clinic in Kuajok , known as Kuajok Superior Clinic which I established in 2008 from my salary of World vision as I was employed by then as Health project officer in Gogrial west with a monthly salary of 1500 USD per month I owe World vision credit for my career foundation in business., this clinic I later transferred to Juba and name it as City Medical clinic , then in 2014 I started an institute by funding it from that clinic and in the same vein the building that is Hoisting Ayii University was built from Tuition fees collection and of late supplemented loan from Eden Commercial Bank and the recent intervention of a loan from KCB that will see the building in its state of art for a world class university as more loan is secured by constant Tuition fees from the University(AU) and Juba Institute of Health Sciences(JIHS)

In conclusion, in term of postsecondary qualification I hold a PhD majoring in Medical Education and Masters of Public Health From Atlantic International University – USA, Master of Public Policy from University of Juba , Master of Business Administration candidate University of Juba, Bachelor of Law Student University of Juba, Bachelor of Medical Education graduate Makerere University, Higher Diploma In Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery graduate Mulago, Diploma in Clinical medicine and Public Health graduate Nhti Maridi “