Our universities and the quest for global status
gerian universities can metamorphose into world class universities. It is possible for them to achieve what the Ivy League and other world ranking universities achieved in the United States and other parts of the world”
– Dibu Ojerinde, December 9, 2015
The opening quote is sourced from the convocation and 10th anniversary lecture delivered on Wednesday at the Lead City University, Ibadan by Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, Chief Executive and Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. The lecture, which drew an impressive audience from both town and gown, addresses principally two issues. The first is to what extent Nigerian universities can be considered to be making progress in the direction of world class status; while the second concerns itself with the nature and quality of contributions made by our private universities to the nation’s educational development.
Both issues have from time to time generated considerable conversation in the public sphere especially the one pertaining to creating a compass that will guide our universities unto the world stage. Interestingly, and as many will recall, Nigerian universities were born unto the world stage as showpieces of the colonial and early post-colonial mindset. At those points in time, and for at least two decades after independence, taking degrees from a Nigerian university was as good as obtaining them from the best British and American universities. But only until then. Subsequently, as a result of unplanned and dizzying multiplication of universities, in the face of dwindling economic resources, jackboot policies of ill-informed autocratic governments, rising insecurity, staccato academic calendar and massive brain drain, our universities fell off the world stage, increasingly marginalised in the rapidly globalising world.
Ojerinde believes that Nigerian universities should resume the journey to global status which they abandoned or forced to abandon by a confluence of disabling and disempowering circumstances. Using Cornell University in New York from where he earned his doctorate in 1978 as a model, the lecturer depicts a world class university as one possessing, among others, several features. These include reputational capital based on cutting edge research, building learning environments, where the best academics want to be, international presence, attracting the best undergraduates, appropriate financial and human resources as well as effective use of international networks and alliances.
Before pursuing the topic further however, this writer craves the reader’s indulgence to enter a short take. Consider how the word “inconclusive” has been “trending” in public discussion lately. Gabriel Akinnadewo, a former Managing Director of New Telegraph, it was who posted on his Facebook wall a few days ago the joke that those who want to send him Christmas gifts should ensure that the act of giving is not “inconclusive”. After the two governorship elections in Kogi and Bayesa states became inconclusive according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, that word has gained currency in our political and social vocabulary. I have heard it said that the season’s usual celebration may be marred or become “inconclusive” because several authorities, federal, state and private, may likely be unable to pay accumulated arrears of owed salaries, let alone grant a bonus. There is substance to that line of thinking when you factor that Lagos and other major cities are not wearing the look of festivity and are bereft for the most part of the decoration and colour that traditionally announce the Yuletide season. In other words, with the fuel crisis disappearing and appearing, insecurity an ever abiding threat, prices of goods soaring away, electricity still an on and off service, for most Nigerians, Christmas can hardly be merry. In that sense, the celebration and gift items, as Akinnadewo feared, may indeed become “inconclusive.
– Dibu Ojerinde, December 9, 2015
The opening quote is sourced from the convocation and 10th anniversary lecture delivered on Wednesday at the Lead City University, Ibadan by Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, Chief Executive and Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. The lecture, which drew an impressive audience from both town and gown, addresses principally two issues. The first is to what extent Nigerian universities can be considered to be making progress in the direction of world class status; while the second concerns itself with the nature and quality of contributions made by our private universities to the nation’s educational development.
Both issues have from time to time generated considerable conversation in the public sphere especially the one pertaining to creating a compass that will guide our universities unto the world stage. Interestingly, and as many will recall, Nigerian universities were born unto the world stage as showpieces of the colonial and early post-colonial mindset. At those points in time, and for at least two decades after independence, taking degrees from a Nigerian university was as good as obtaining them from the best British and American universities. But only until then. Subsequently, as a result of unplanned and dizzying multiplication of universities, in the face of dwindling economic resources, jackboot policies of ill-informed autocratic governments, rising insecurity, staccato academic calendar and massive brain drain, our universities fell off the world stage, increasingly marginalised in the rapidly globalising world.
Ojerinde believes that Nigerian universities should resume the journey to global status which they abandoned or forced to abandon by a confluence of disabling and disempowering circumstances. Using Cornell University in New York from where he earned his doctorate in 1978 as a model, the lecturer depicts a world class university as one possessing, among others, several features. These include reputational capital based on cutting edge research, building learning environments, where the best academics want to be, international presence, attracting the best undergraduates, appropriate financial and human resources as well as effective use of international networks and alliances.
Before pursuing the topic further however, this writer craves the reader’s indulgence to enter a short take. Consider how the word “inconclusive” has been “trending” in public discussion lately. Gabriel Akinnadewo, a former Managing Director of New Telegraph, it was who posted on his Facebook wall a few days ago the joke that those who want to send him Christmas gifts should ensure that the act of giving is not “inconclusive”. After the two governorship elections in Kogi and Bayesa states became inconclusive according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, that word has gained currency in our political and social vocabulary. I have heard it said that the season’s usual celebration may be marred or become “inconclusive” because several authorities, federal, state and private, may likely be unable to pay accumulated arrears of owed salaries, let alone grant a bonus. There is substance to that line of thinking when you factor that Lagos and other major cities are not wearing the look of festivity and are bereft for the most part of the decoration and colour that traditionally announce the Yuletide season. In other words, with the fuel crisis disappearing and appearing, insecurity an ever abiding threat, prices of goods soaring away, electricity still an on and off service, for most Nigerians, Christmas can hardly be merry. In that sense, the celebration and gift items, as Akinnadewo feared, may indeed become “inconclusive.
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