Government owned institutions in Nigeria, including federal and state, have come
under attack in recent times. These attacks have rendered the "business as
usual" model redundant for these institutions and have the potential to negatively impact the higher education ecosystem in Nigeria. There is the urgent need
to re-evaluate the visions of each institution vis-a-vis the establishing laws
and current realities. This will help in designing adaptive solutions to create a more robust system. The relevance of government owned institutions in
national discourse is being threatened in many ways. What are these attacks and
how can our institutions mitigate their impacts?
The bulk of the attack is focused on university financing. University financing in public institutions is mainly from the government funding and internally generated revenues. The internal revenue sources are from programmes such as postgraduate and remedial studies. Nigerian institutions do not get much funding from large grants and endowments. In recent times, the funding from these programmes is dwindling. Due to incessant strikes, high cost, and uncertain future, students now prefer to enroll in foreign universities rather than local institutions. Furthermore, many private universities are taking a large chunk of the postgraduate students. The remedial programmes are not faring better. Private institutions and non-official organizations are running the same programmes public universities are offering at a lower cost. Most institutions are increasing components of school fees to cover these lapses. Unfortunately, this might not provide the much needed support as students will fight it and many will drop out during the programme.
Historically, most public universities have alumni bodies which operate separately but in conjunction with university authorities. The lack of structured and coordinated alumni policy and programme has led to the loss of funding for universities. Universities facilitate the payment of alumni fees by graduating students to the alumni body in return for specific projects. Both the university and alumni body hardly maintain contact with these graduates. More over, many students graduated with deep sentiments from their respective departments. Hence, it is difficult for the university to reach out to their products for funding.
Rent seeking mentality has limited the level of creativity within our public universities. The steady flow of money from government and students has made administrators docile in terms of innovations for financial independence. Public universities in Nigeria will boast of rents from hostels, income from industrial activities such as bread and water production. Where are the spin-offs from research ideas? Where are the commercialization of patents and solutions to national problems? What are universities generating from tech hubs and entrepreneurship programmes. How many industries are our universities partnering with for curriculum development, student training, commercialization.
The national financial challenges will make university funding more difficult. The quest for better pay for academic staff will put more pressure on funds for infrastructural development. This will get worse over the years as we produce more professors with heavy pay. There is the urgent need for public institution to wake up from their slumber and create systems to mitigate the impact of dwindling funds for education. Students must be seen as products not an appendage to the system. Hence, what we teach these students should be relevant after graduation. They should be treated in such a way that their will be no hesitation when approached after graduation for funds. We should stay in touch with our graduates through consistent communications either on social media or newsletters. We stand to make more money from our students after they graduate than while in school, therefore, we need to treat them right. Our business models should evolve beyond bread and water companies. We need to leverage on our published research to build businesses around recycling, improved agricultural systems, develop consultancy, advanced production systems, and many more.
All hands must be on deck in this journey to build a sustainable public university system. The political intrigues involved in selection of university administrators must be removed. The process must produce the best among us to lead us. University administrators must be accountable to the system they govern. This is not the era for nepotistic employment of incompetent and unnecessary staff members, construction of edifices that have no bearing to academic productivity, or contract spiking. The Academic Staff Union of Universities has a significant role to play in this fight. The Union needs to hold university administrators accountable for the development funds being fought for. What are the deliverables for the funds being requested from the government? Is the government funding publications in predatory journals or local journals languishing in local mediocrity? ASUU must work with University administrator to deal with lazy, unproductive, and sadistic academics with archaic views of students. We cannot allow a very few among us to cut off our young ones and their future funding because of their randy and backward behaviour.
