Fwd: [NIgerianWorldForum] NIGERIAN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS IN A GLOBALISED ENVIRONMENT

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

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Date: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] NIGERIAN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS IN A GLOBALISED ENVIRONMENT
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NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN A GLOBALISED ENVIRONMENT

Lecture by Professor Bart Nnaji, FAS, CON, NNOM, Honourable Minister of Power at the maiden graduation of Ronik Polytechnic, Lagos, on Thursday, April, 19, 2012.

Protocol.

 

I would like to thank, in a profound way, the Governing Council, Management and staff of Ronik Polytechnic for considering me worthy enough to be conferred with the prestigious honour of Fellowship of the Polytechnic. I am also delighted to be asked to deliver the graduation lecture at the first convocation of the Polytechnic. Much as I left the academia a couple of years ago in order to make my modest contribution  as a private citizen to the resolution of the perennial electricity crisis in Nigeria, I still consider higher education my primary constituency. I did prepare to attend these ceremonies in flesh and blood, but had to bow to the higher national responsibility of accompanying President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, on a state visit to Germany where a lot of people and businesses have expressed interest in participating in the ongoing power sector reform in Nigeria. Only last Saturday, I returned from a visit to Washington with Vice President Namadi Sambo, GCON, where we followed through with the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Export-Import Bank, which towards the end of last year signed an MoU with the Ministry of Power for 1.5 billion dollar facility to Nigeria’s power sector alone. All this is only a part of the ever growing international investor confidence in our country’s hugely rewarding effort to liberalise and modernize the power sector.

 

I would like, at this point, to thank the authorities of this promising polytechnic  for permitting to change the topic of this lecture from “The Place of Engineering In National Development” to “Some Thoughts on Higher Education In Nigeria In A Globalised Environment”. I really appreciate the magnanimity and flexibility of the authorities. I appreciate the fact that they share with the Jonathan Administration the sense of urgency required to fix the profound educational crisis facing us all.

 

THE CRISIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Higher education in Nigeria is in deep crisis. This is a fact everyone acknowledges. Before the crisis became pronounced, Professor Chinua Achebe,  a prognosticator and seer, had called national attention to the impending crisis. He cited an example, in an interview published in Sunday Concord newspaper, with how university professors were speaking and writing awful English. This was in 1984. A group of University of Lagos professors, falling short of calling Achebe a liar, violently disagreed with him and granted a series of press interviews against him. Today the whole nation knows who was right and who was in error.

 

Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has stated that up to 90 per cent of higher education graduates are not employable. Most people agree with Soludo, himself a product of the local university system.  The severe and fundamental crisis in the Nigerian university system was the subject of Dr Pius Okigbo’s scintillating convocation lecture at the University of Lagos in 1992 entitled “Crisis in the Temple”. Okigbo, Africa’s most decorated economist, lamented that even university authorities were no more interested in honouring men and women of knowledge and integrity but in men and women of wealth and power. He demonstrated with convincing facts and statistics how  the universities had of late been bestowing their honorary doctoral degrees on not academics, writers, accomplished technocrats and scientists, but on wealthy individuals and men with political power, including their wives. It is regrettable that the situation has not changed. If anything, it has worsened. Let us look around us, and we shall see how vice chancellors and others are running around state governors across the country with honorary doctorates. So, we do really have a crisis of values and vision at different levels in our academic institutions. Against this backdrop, the nation cannot but commend President Jonathan for recently advising the governing councils, vice chancellors and rectors of tertiary education in Nigeria against  further commercialization of honorary doctorates and fellowships.

The crisis in the universities is a supreme irony. By 1960 when Nigeria attained independence, most villages and whole communities in the country had no university graduates. Still, the few products of the University College, Ibadan, were competing favourably with their counterparts from Oxford, Cambridge, London, etc. But decades later when education has supposedly spread everywhere in Nigeria, products of local universities are anything but inspiring. Let us bear in mind that Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Professor Chinua Achebe, Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor JP Clark, Professor Akin Mabogunje, Prof Anya O. Anya, Prof Iya Abubakar, Prof Alex Animalu, Prof Jibril Aminu and other world class scholars are all products of Nigerian universities. Can the current university system in Nigeria produce graduates of the international caliber of the people we have just mentioned? Why are Nigerian parents and guardians desperate to send their children and wards to not just the United States, Britain or Canada, but Cyprus, Ghana and Tunisia and pay through their nose for tertiary education? Why does the unwritten policy among Nigerian parents seem to be “ Anywhere But Nigeria” as far as higher education is concerned?

 

PRACTICAL STEPS TO STRENGHENING HIGHER EDUCATION

 

An examination of the roots of the crisis of higher education in Nigeria is beyond the scope of this paper. But in the 2009 annual Ahiajoku Lecture, which I delivered in Owerri, Imo State, I recommended a number of steps which should be taken to strengthen tertiary education in the country and make it globally competitive. Among the steps recommended was making the following courses compulsory in the first two years of the undergraduate programme, irrespective of the area of specialization by each student: English & Communication, Logic as well as Ethics. I also suggested that in the last two or three years, the following courses should be made compulsory, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Organisation Theories, Financial Accounting, International Business, Management & Cost Accounting, as well as Elements of Banking. Our education should prepare graduates for the real challenges they must confront in the larger society, especially as they move up in the ladder of their careers. A medical doctor requires a bit of management skills to run a hospital, just as communication skills will help him or her  write a professional paper or prepare a persuasive memo if he or she is a director in the Ministry of Health. It may interest  some people  to know that in the United States, for instance, all university students study the same courses for the first two years.

 

There are other steps which should be taken to strengthen tertiary education in Nigeria; these measure do not include steps which have already been widely recommended like better funding for both public and private institutions.  I will briefly discuss the question of better funding only in the context of the need for the universities and colleges themselves to be more creative, more aggressive and more business-like, that is, without compromising academic integrity or excellence. American higher institutions derive immense revenues from their alumni and from research activities. Our educational institutes, which have on their staff many alumni of American institutions, should borrow a leaf from the American universities which rake in substantial revenues from their alumni.  Public institutions in Nigeria, on the other hand, traditionally depend almost entirely on the government for funds, which, of course, turn out to be mere handouts in relation to their huge and pressing  financial needs.

 

It is time our educational institutions encouraged their lecturers and others to conduct research for organizations in the private and public sectors, from which the institutions can benefit financially. While teaching Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Pittsburgh, I was greatly encouraged by my employers to do tremendous research work for the American Army, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), IBM, General Electric, etc. Even here in Nigeria, there is the example of how the late Professor Oliver Mobisson, working as Director of the Industrial Development Centre at the Anambra (now Enugu) State University of Technology worked in collaboration with NITEL on the Eagle Project for the digitization of the operations of the state-owned telecommunications giant. Mobisson’s IDC at ASUTECH also worked with the then Anambra State Ministry of Finance headquarters in Enugu to conceive, build and develop a specialized computer for the Ministry. The university benefitted from the collaborative efforts. What I am saying here is simple enough: the concept of the university as an ivory tower does not obtain any more. We are now in an era when Town and Gown are married!

 

 

 

GRADUAL BUT STEADY DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS

To further strengthen higher education in Nigeria, the practice or philosophy of what the Great Zik of Africa would call “suru lere” is strongly recommended. This refers to a gradual and careful process  of growth or expansion. It is imperative for a university or any institution of higher learning to choose a few courses critical to its mission and develop them to a reasonable standard before adding others. A Southeastern government started a university of technology at the inception of democratic rule in 1999, a rather commendable effort. But before the new university of technology could acquire up to 15 Personal Computers (PCs), it had introduced all manner of degree courses, including an LL.B programme. The academic programmes were run so haphazardly that the Council on Legal Education was not aware there was a Bachelor of Laws programme in the university until the final year Law students were preparing to go the Nigerian Law School for the mandatory one year professional training. Yet, every university in the country is required to obtain accreditation from the Council On Legal Education, which runs the Nigerian Law school, before it can start the basic law degree programme.

 

The above is not an isolated case. Most state government-owned universities are established for political reasons. Courses are introduced indiscriminately. Delicate courses like medicine which are expensive to run are introduced without standard laboratories and facilities. Lecturers are hired and promoted over their real competence. The newly established private universities are not left out in the expansion race. The result of all this is a catastrophic fall in standards. At this juncture, I would like to commend the example of Pan African University, Lagos. It has, right from the time it was established as Lagos Business School, focused only on business courses. As a result, Pan African University has a well developed and respected business curriculum. In the same manner, the seminaries in Nigeria deserve commendation for concentrating on only two degree courses, namely, Philosophy and Theology. Their courses are generally believed to be more rigorous than those in regular tertiary institutions.

 

POST GRADUATE STUDIES

One area of our university system which deserves attention is the  establishment of post graduate schools. Newly established universities which have yet to find their feet have regrettably commenced all kinds of post graduate courses .Let us bear in mind that there are many first class higher institutions in the United States established over 150 years ago which do not run doctoral degree programmes. Examples include Amherst College founded in 1821 and Boston College founded in 1863,  which are in the first tier of universities and colleges. The College of the Holy Cross, a highly respected Jesuit institution in the United States founded in 1843, does not offer even the master’s degree programmes.

 

GLOBALISATION OF CURRICULAR

Ladies and gentlemen, as we live more and more in a global village, it has become more imperative to make our educational institutions a greater part of the international community. There is no better time than now for our universities to join the trend in the world of higher institutions partnering with others for their own benefit. Such cooperation or partnership manifests in three broad areas, namely, development of dual or joint or double degree programmes; joint research efforts; and exchange programmes involving students and lecturers. These programmes typically involve one university in one region of the world and another (or others) elsewhere. We shall now cite examples.

In the first part of this decade, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research inaugurated an eight-year program under the German Academic Exchange Service for local universities to partner with foreign institutions, mostly in Canada, Europe and the United States, for joint degree programmes which would see students from the partner universities transfer their credit to the German institutions, and vice versa. Under the programme for which considerable resources have been made available and joint research projects established, lecturers and students have participated in various exchange programmes.

 

Japan has, of course, a similar programme. Agreements between Japanese universities and foreign institutions cover such matters as the number of participating students, the contents of the academic programmes, programme management,  periodic meetings between partner institutions, etc.

 

Norway and Russia are two countries with stupendous petroleum resources and located in the far north of Europe. Immediately communism collapsed in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) failed, the two countries began to deepen their relations and maximize their natural resources in the international community by, among others, initiating joint degrees in High North Energy Cooperation. The Russian—Norwegian Institute of Energy Cooperation was established at Bodo Graduate School of Business Administration & The Moscow Institute of International Relations & The International Institute of Energy Policy & Diplomacy (MGIMO). Even American universities like Columbia and the University of Texas have joined the programme as partners.

 

Twenty eight top management schools in Europe have formed an alliance called Community of European Management  Schools. Their joint MBA programme, run in conjunction with over 60 top companies, was in 2009 rated number one worldwide by Financial Times of London. Participants in the program earn the M.sc degree from HEC, Paris,  and the MBA in International Management from partner universities.

 

Students of Lawrence University  in Wisconsin can go to Duke University in North Carolina or Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, to complete their degree programmes because of the new deal between Lawrence and these institutions.

 

The National University of Singapore  (NUS) has been collaborating with different top universities in various fields. Its engineering programmes are run in conjunction with the MIT, its Law School has the New York University input, its medical programme is developed together with Duke University, and the music programme run in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University. Not satisfied with offering professional courses with these top American universities, NUS began in September  of 2010 talks with Yale University on how the two universities can set up a liberal arts college in Singapore. The deal is almost concluded.

 

Are these collaborative programmes just an affair of the developed world? Not quite. The example of khazar University in Azerbaijan in the former USSR is quite instructive. The university has extensive agreements with various institutions, both academic and non-academic, in the world. Khazar, which proudly describes itself as the network university, collaborates with 15 American universities (including Harvard, UCLA, and Columbia), I Dutch university, 6 British universities, 5 French universities, 1 Italian university, I Ukraine university, I Bulgarian university, 1 Latvia university, 1 Bulgarian university, 4 Cypriot university, 4 Swedish universities, 4 Norwegian universities, 4 Turkish universities, 1 Israeli university, 1 Malaysian university, 3 Japanese universities, 2 Chinese universities, 4 Korean universities, 1 Pakistani university, 1 Thai university, 6 Iranian universities, 4 Georgian universities,  2 Libyan universities and 1 Australian university. Khazar’s undergraduate programme in Business Administration as well as its MBA are run in conjunction with the Georgia State University in Atlanta. The university also has cooperation agreements with the State Department, the American Bar Association, the University of Michigan Press, the Open Society Institute founded by George Soros ( the international financier), Red Cross International, Fulbright Programme, and the Cambridge Journal Online, among many others. It is interesting that Khazar University’s collaboration agreement with UCLA is in the area of general university development, including library automation system and funds raising.

 

We are truly in a globalised era. It is an era when you can stay in Dubai and pick up a Georgetown University degree or stay in Abu Dhabi or Turkey and obtain a State University of New York degree.  None of these certificates is by distance learning, but by campus learning. These American universities have campuses in the Middle East.

 

 

 

 

Collaboration among universities is in every person’s interest. I had the privilege of serving as Director of the United States National Science Foundation Centre for e-Design at the University of Pittsburgh where I also served, first, as ALCOA Foundation Professor and, later, as William Kepler Whiteford Professor. The centre was made possible because it’s a collaborative effort involving the University of Massachusetts, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, University of Central Florida and the University of Pittsburgh, with the United States Air Force, Ford Motors, the US Department of Defence, the US Navy, the US Army, Aluminum Company of America, KODAK, IBM and Boeing Corporation as member organisations. I hope to see collaborative efforts like this in our country someday.

 

As you can see, Black Africa does not seem to count so much in the unfolding world scenario as regards the transformation of university education. Hegel, the German philosopher, once wrote that “Africa is not part of history”. All of us have a duty to ensure that Africa is a major part of 21^st world history. The fear that collaboration with foreign universities will cost Nigerian universities their identity is unfounded. None of the institutions involved in such partnerships have lost their identity. Such partnerships rather help in the promotion of academic and cultural exchanges and in the deepening of international understanding. It is time for us to think global and act local.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for listening. I am done.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[amomo...@yahoo.com]

"An examination of the roots of the crisis of higher education in Nigeria is beyond the scope of this paper"-Prof. Barth Nnaji.
In my view, to evade the crucial task of examining the roots of the crisis in higher education, is to abandon the most burdensome aspect of the paper. It amounts to gross negligence. How we understand the crisis is also key to the solutions we profer.
Prof. Nnaji's solutions beg the question. And they do not show any thorough understanding of the crisis of higher education in Nigerian.
Abu

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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