More women enrol in UI law, medicine departments – VC

What are the major problems of education in Nigeria and the universities? The problems of education in Nigeria, looking at it at the national level, we have issues with access, like maybe every year, one and a half million candidates write UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) and universities can only take 500,000 candidates. So, there […]

What are the major problems of education in Nigeria and the universities?

The problems of education in Nigeria, looking at it at the national level, we have issues with access, like maybe every year, one and a half million candidates write UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) and universities can only take 500,000 candidates. So, there is the problem of access. 

There is also the issue of funding, the cost of education. There is a Federal Government policy which says we should not charge tuition fees, which I think is an excellent policy; because if you charge high tuition fees, many students would not be able to afford it. And you don’t want to deprive otherwise qualified candidates the opportunity to go to university. But again, university education is expensive whether in Nigeria or any part of the world. 

So, you have to reach a compromise: government says don’t charge fees, but government is not able to provide adequate finance. So you talk of access, you also talk of the cost.

 Then you also have the issue of quality. When you are producing graduates, they should be competent, so that whether they are looking for jobs in Nigeria or outside, they should not be found wanting. And so you have to compete with the rest of the world, because if there is a single job vacancy, and 50 people are chasing that position, your students have to be among the best in the world for them to stand any chance. So the issue of quality is important. So access in terms of how many candidates are applying and how many places we have, the cost, the quality, and then gender.

 You don’t want to leave the girls behind. Like in the University of Ibadan, it is almost 50 per cent for male and 50 per cent for females. In some programmes like law, you have more female students. Most of the medical students are now females, which we are happy about. Not to talk of courses like nursing. Most of the nursing students are naturally females.

Then how do you make ends meet in terms of funding, in view of what you’ve said?

Well, we try, in spite of the challenges. We have to make something out of nothing, like squeezing water out of hard rock. But we think things can always get better. And that’s why we are very happy that we’ve come here with our alumni in the UK, the first one in Diaspora, coming to assist the university. I think it’s the best way to go.

 Do you see any danger in producing graduates in large numbers who have very little chances of getting jobs?

That has something to do with quality and the curriculum. We don’t have to teach students what to think, but we can teach them how to think. So critical thinking is very important. So we have got to revise the curriculum, because the curriculum we have been using for 30, 40 years, since I was an undergraduate is not sufficient today. Now that there is innovation in technology, our students have to be competent in the use of information technology (IT). Whether you are going into journalism, banking, engineering, IT is very important. We must continue to upgrade our libraries and IT facilities.

Universities should produce students who should be able to compete favourably with their colleagues. We have a centre for entrepreneurship and innovation. Some of the students may be able to create jobs themselves if they are trained as entrepreneurs.

Are the universities overproducing graduates in Nigeria?

No, we are not overproducing. It is just the absorptive capacity of the economy that is not enough. If we produce, let’s say 50,000 scientists a year, maybe the country requires only 25,000. So the remaining 25,000 individuals would not be able to find employment immediately, not because they were not well-trained. And that’s why some of them go abroad and they do very well and excel. 

So the establishment of more private universities in the country is the way to go?

We need to create more access, not just by private universities, but even federal universities. They should admit more students if they have the facilities for them, such as laboratory facilities, hostel facilities, lecture rooms, the studios that they need. We can even still expand our capacity, then the private universities can complement for those whose parents and guardians can afford (private university education). You know private universities are more expensive due to the fact that they don’t receive subventions from the government. So it’s mainly from the fees that students contribute. So they are naturally expensive for the average Nigerian. But many of them still go to private universities.

At the rate they are spring up, you don’t think they are too many?

I don’t think we have too many, because the population keeps increasing. When we talk about access, every year 1.5 million candidates apply for admission through JAMB. Even if only 750,000 of them are qualified and we are only able to admit 400,000, where would the rest go? So it becomes a challenge.

What’s the best way to tackle the issue of competence or quality of our graduates?

It’s lack of skills. Some studies have shown that majority of graduates from Nigerian universities lack communication skills, both written and oral. So that needs to be improved upon. It is not so much because they are not intelligent that they are not able to express themselves.

 At what level do you see the problem taking root?

Maybe it’s from secondary school, or even from primary school. You know by the time they come to tertiary institutions, there is very little you can do. But we still need to invest more resources in it. They need to generally improve at such levels. How they write their curriculum vitae, when they go to interviews, how they perform, etc. These are some of the things we need to improve upon.  At the University of Ibadan we have career development and counselling centre which was established 15 years ago to help students to be at their best.

Would the correction measures you are advocating involve overhauling the education policy?

No, the policy is good on paper. It is just the implementation. But we still need to continue to improve on the system.

How do you handle the issue of lecturers harassing students?

I don’t think it’s a serious problem. Once we have such reports, we deal with them with dispatch. We have zero tolerance for lecturers victimising students or sexually harassing them.

Do you mean sexual harassment or victimisation of students by their teachers is not a problem in Nigerian universities or in your university?

In my university, it’s not a problem. And if there are such issues, we tackle them immediately. 

Each university requires a sexual harassment policy. We have a gender policy at the University of Ibadan. There is also a sexual harassment policy. 

Sometimes you hear reports of students ‘harassing’ their teachers. What do you do in such cases?

Well, you never know. We tackle all reports or cases of harassment as soon as they come to our notice.