The Second World War catalyzed the Colonial Office's decision to uphold socioeconomic development in Britain's colonies and to eventually guide them towards ‘responsible self-government’. Education was a key factor in these new plans. The adaptationist outlook of previous decades, notorious for its ‘excessive paternalism and lethargic conservatism’, gave way to ‘an increasing emphasis on getting more students’ through to the top ‘of the educational ladder’. The Asquith Commission's report, which gave the green light to the eventual establishment of university colleges in 1943, further strengthened these imperatives.

In 1941, the Education Department decided to reopen the Umuahia Government College. More than 300 boys sat for the entrance examination in December, which included papers on English, mathematics, mental arithmetic, and general knowledge. The nineteen successful candidates were admitted to King's College, Lagos, as ‘Umuahia Form I.’ The following year, another group of twenty students was admitted into the school's subsection at King's College. There was a firm reason for resuscitating Government College, Umuahia in the locus of Nigeria's premier government institution. This time around, Umuahia was to be robed in the shining mantle of the elite English public school.

Reginald F. Jumbo coordinated the relocation to the Umudike campus in April 1943. The school's thirty-nine students immediately dispersed on holiday. In May, the new academic staff, comprising Martin Ogle (English and History), W.E. Alagoa (Biology) and the Acting Principal, W.H. Thorp (Physics and Mathematics) joined Jumbo at the college premises. Special tests were held in June; ten new students were admitted into Form 1 and four into Form II. Classes began officially on 2 July 1943, exactly three years after the dispersal of the original Government College, Umuahia.