‘How To Revamp Nigerian Varsities’

Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof Isaac Adewole says universities in Nigeria must diversify to generate funds, if they are to survive the current harsh climate.
Prof. Adewole made the recommendation in a paper, “The University Administrator and Magician: The Nigerian Paradox’’, which he delivered at the 70th birthday celebrations of Prof. Nimi Briggs last weekend in Port Harcourt.
He said the dwindling allocation to universities has made it imperative for them to be more adaptive and innovative.
“While I agree that universities should be open to society and to their local communities, I beg to disagree with the notion that ‘if you turn universities into businesses, you will not have universities’ anymore,” Adewole argued.
The University of Ibadan vice chancellor insisted that universities should go beyond research, teaching and knowledge transfer to marketing and entrepreneurship, adding that, “the current emphasis on internally generated revenue calls for greater creativity. The allocations for overhead and capital vote keep tumbling every year.’’
He also advocated the need for university autonomy based on clear-cut roles that would chart a new course for academic freedom.
The university don warned that over the years, university autonomy has continued to erode as a result of politicization of governing councils and ”the introduction of the envelope system, ‘coupled with the centralization of admission’.
Adewole, therefore, called on the National Universities Commission (NUC) to evolve new policy such that vice chancellors would be strategic and development-oriented in the face of the dwindling resource allocation to them.
He, however, commended Prof Briggs, who as vice chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, distinguished himself as an academic and administrator.