Why Nigerian Universities Underperform, by VC

At the sixth commemorative lecture of Professor Adetokunbo Babatunde Sofoluwe that he delivered at the University of Lagos, the Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, the professor Olanrewaju A. Fagbohun, highlights the plague of Nigerian variations. The professor listed the challenges and suggested the release in his lecture entitled: "Commodification of Education: What Imperatives to Transform University Education in Nigeria."

It is a great privilege and honor to have been invited to address this distinguished audience. For this, let me express my gratitude to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, at the Lagos University Alumni Association, the Lagos Section and the community of Lagos. University of Lagos. When the Vice Chancellor raised the idea of ​​delivering the lecture commemorative Professor Adetokunbo Babatunde Sofoluwe in 2018, I immediately expressed my enthusiasm for this prospect. Then he entrusted me with the responsibility of choosing my own subject. It was there that I had my challenge: what topic will be of broader interest, fitting in the memory of this distinguished scholar of distinction, and has not been discussed enough.

Deep within me, my resolution was inspired by premise: First, there is no doubt that Professor Sofoluwe, in whose honor this institution has established this annual conference, was a man human and compbadionate. Secondly, he was engaged in the service of the people. Therefore, the subject of my speech must naturally align with its footprint and long-term desire, particularly to ensure that Nigeria's higher education system becomes a catalyst for Nigeria's competitiveness in the marketplace. world.

infused approach by the education market. In such a context, knowledge is treated as a commodity whose value is measured by comparing the cost of acquiring a degree with the financial gains that the degree ultimately attracts. It is a process in which education and its acquisition take the metaphor of buying and selling goods and services for commercial exchange. One of the flagship articles of the newspaper Sunday PUNCH of April 29, 2018 read: " Rising public tuition fees threaten the dreams of indigent students." It is common knowledge that academic activities have been disrupted many times in many universities due to the increase in tuition fees to fill the gap in public funding.

So what is the relevance of The PUNCH leading history to the question of the commodification of education? If the higher education system is to achieve its goals of contributing to national development, universities must be adequately funded. Unfortunately, like today, the opposite is true. To put it bluntly, even modestly, our universities have poor results in their contribution to national development because of inadequate funding, among others. There is a crisis of underfunding that seriously threatens the provision of quality education in Nigeria. It is a problem that affects people's lives with so much urgency. To alleviate the challenge, universities are resorting to increasing tuition fees. Antagonists of the tuition increase have dubbed this "education for sale" while the protagonists strongly argue that the tuition fee increases are a direct result of the declining allocation of grants to students. universities with serious consequences for optimal long-term exploitation. If we consider universities as the nerve center of national development of a country (especially in the fields of knowledge production and innovation, human capacity development and production indirect), few of them will argue that higher education is currently transversal. the fundamental question is what should be the division of responsibilities for the financing of university education between the society as a whole (represented by taxpayers) and the individual students who enroll and their sponsors, according to the case. In this respect, it is important to recognize that higher education has gradually been commodified over the years. The three major sources of funding for public universities have long been government grants or grants; the contribution of the pupil or parents (tuition fees or non-school allied costs); and revenue derived by the institution from business or commercial or quasi-commercial services, investments, donations and endowments. Ideally, there should be four major sources, the most missing being the internal and external research funds. This form of financing is hardly a factor in Nigerian universities for reasons that justify another platform and another day.

The above immediately highlights the fact that rising fees will limit the carefree attitude of students if they are involved in buying a stake in their education. They are already involved. The percentage of cost sharing is therefore what is at stake. How can we solve this problem if we want to guarantee access for all (rich and poor) to a quality education? How fortunate is Nigeria to be a key player in the emerging global knowledge economy through the instrumentality of its tertiary educational resources?

State of Our Universities: The Record

At the Convocation Conference from 1992 of this great university entitled: "The crisis in the temple" the scholar, and highly … Mr. Pius Okigbo, respected scholar and rare breed, lamented the desecration and destruction of values academics. The university as "temple or sanctified space", as it rightly noted, is supposed to be a venerated institution, similar to a monastery, seminary or madrbadah; sacred spaces commissioned to produce the beacons of hope, healthy leadership and development, but whose value and importance have eroded more and more due to years of military and civilian mismanagement of the Nigerian state

Okigbo statement, but, history has changed? Not much in my opinion. Our education sector, especially the tertiary sector, is now more important for the wrong reasons than for its contribution to national development. Rather than being the bastion of hope in a state of frantic chaos, he is quickly abandoning his ideals and, with alarming availability, he imbibes the unpleasant aspects of our rules of social engagement. I mean, rather than offering a model of decency, as a "scholarly community," our universities are becoming more and more mirrors, even transmitters of all that is socially and morally wrong in our society. Rather than being a buffer, our universities serve as magnets for unhealthy social trends.

The link in the paradox above with the question of the commodification of education is not far-fetched. In a report published in 2017 by the National Commission of Universities (NUC) titled "The State of University Education in Nigeria," the Nigerian university system has had a relatively impressive outflow in the main mandates of the NUC. teaching, research and community service. However, better performance would have been achieved if a number of obstacles did not hinder progress. The top three challenges reported by all universities in pooling data are: funding (89%), infrastructure deficit (81%), staff shortage (71%) and poor reading culture (71%). ). At present, our tertiary institutions are not likely to be a midwife, socio-political, economic and technological transformation if necessary after more than five decades of independence and independence. autonomy, unless the sector is adequately funded. Neither the transformations of East and Southeast Asia, nor the historical development of states like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, excluding the Newly industrialized countries of Latin America such as Brazil and Argentina are not imminent. This is so despite the exponential growth in the number of tertiary institutions (161 universities) established by federal and state governments as well as by missionaries and other private entities.

Despite the unfairness of the global matrix to measure innovation in relation In Africa, Nigerian universities are in no way badociated with the creation of even a marginal degree of intellectual property, such as patents and intellectual property. valuable copyright and other valuable intellectual badets. This dismal record shows the quality of our tertiary institutions and explains their permanent occupation of the subsoil of the high-level university evaluations.

As a provider of systems and services, our tertiary education is often not aligned with national challenges or imperatives, including the needs of industry, workers, and the private sector. Foreign experts are still imported to provide advice on topics that our institutions have multiple departments and faculties. This is an indication not only of the problem of an off-the-wall but symptomatic curriculum of more fundamental dislocations.

I will argue that rot in our tertiary education is largely the result of the failure of recognition of education as a national priority, as a tool for socio-economic development and as a real weapon for social engineering. Education is a mega-sector with transversal and intersectoral utility. Tertiary education must not only flourish unhindered and unhindered, but must also be endowed with the resources, infrastructure and facilities it urgently needs to fulfill its mandate in the twenty-first century. It is a social investment measured by timeless, open and incalculable externalities.

In a 2000-2015 report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) entitled: " Dakar Framework for Action" it has been proposed that national governments spend between 15% and 20% of their annual budget on the education sector in order to accelerate progress towards the Education for All (EFA) goals. However, successive administrations are systematically far from this point of reference. In a World Bank study on the budget allocation to the education sector of 20 countries, Nigeria had the lowest allocation for 2012. Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire 39; Ivory, Uganda, Morocco, South Africa and Swaziland respective terms; Kenya ranks eighth behind Mexico . None of the E9 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan) or D8 (Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey) other than Nigeria are in the same category. allocates less than 20% of its annual budget for education.

]

Gross underfunding is the catalyst for the state of our education sector and this has given rise to the different coping strategies that universities are adopting. , including commodification with all its challenges.

Educational Commodification: Challenges and Prospects

Fundamental Challenges Facing Financing Faculties of Education are a global problem. The two main factors are the pressure for increased enrollment (especially in countries like Nigeria where high birth rates are accompanied by higher and higher proportions of young people finishing high school or high school). with legitimate aspirations to higher education). student), cost of higher education. At the current pace of our growth, the United Nations predicts that Nigeria will become the third largest country in the world by 2050 with 399 million people.

Critical benefits come with the commodification of education; where it is effectively targeted. It will improve student responsiveness, support the improvement of infrastructure and services, support entrepreneurship and job creation, while strengthening accountability in the allocation of students. resources. All of this is based on the market principle of "efficiency", which requires a return on investment. The culture of the concept of commodification, however, has several unintended consequences.

One of the major dangers of the commodification of education is its focus on pecuniary-driven disciplines that compel the abandonment of the building and learning of the arts and sciences human. But the higher ideals that catalyze the transformations of society and the optimizations of the boundless creativity of mankind.

But the current concern is that commodification neglects the value of intellectual challenge and exploration by reducing knowledge to quantifiable results. Let me explain this a little further: if students are consumers and their education is a product designed to maximize their comparative ranking in the global market, then they may be deliberately, or desperately, "invented" or "packaged" optimally. successful social and educational products. In this regard, it is worrying that some of the private institutions that strive to attract students by lowering the entry threshold and by having the fewest teachers and other teachers end up have the highest percentage of first-clbad graduates. Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the NUC report on the state of university education in Nigeria provide an badysis of the demographic characteristics of Nigeria's university system in 2017.

In one of the private universities, 30 students out of a total of 250 graduate students had a first-clbad honors degree. Although the low number of students allows much higher pupil / teacher interaction and improves student performance, traditional institutional culture and standard pedagogical practices may also be compromised for the purpose of printing and writing. performance. No matter how eager or ephemeral students are, studies have shown that a consumer-centered education is likely to satisfy those desires in a way that equates to the phenomenon of value for money. .

This position becomes more convincing in the face of regular ads that are now placed by a number of institutions to meet the challenge of low enrollment. The argument here is not that whenever business principles and academic principles confront each other, the latter is always subordinate to the first. On the contrary, we must be wary of the great simplicities that are reflected in the articulations that drive tuition increases to fund the provision of quality educational services.

A third problem is that the commodification of education can reinforce societal inequality. deny access to low-income groups and other vulnerable groups. A focus on tuition, telling a very incomplete story about the affordability of university education. Other costs for students pursuing university studies are accommodation and food, books and supplies, transportation and other basic living expenses. To be clear, the real costs of living are a significant barrier for many students and their families. When this is considered with income levels for the majority of families and individuals, it becomes much more complex to understand the options available.

A fourth challenge for commodification is that of public corruption and debauchery. common to our society and first nature to our political elites, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to convince the public, especially the poor majority that a low pupil / parent contribution scheme is neither affordable nor viable for the state. This reinforces the views of those who are persuaded by Marxism, and the historical root of tuition resistance that catalyzes student activism on the grounds that education is a public good and a tool for justice, equity and egalitarianism.

The Financing Will of Higher Education

The Government Responded to Crises funding in higher education through various instruments and means. The first is the agreement that he signed with the teachers' unions of higher education institutions, namely the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the School Academic Staff Union. Polytechnics (ASUP) and the College Academic Staff Union (COEASU). reviewed or renegotiated periodically. However, these increases in funding for a number of universities are largely spent on resolving or resolving issues related to staff emoluments and arrears of various benefits, and not to improve facilities, infrastructure, infrastructure, and other resources. Teaching and research. This partly explains why the staff unions often demand respect for the agreement or the violation of their claims or the non-application of agreements with the federal government.

A second approach of the federal government is its intervention through the Trust Fund for Tertiary Education (TETFUND) that it established in 2011. TETFUND was to be an agency of Intervention to stop crises in physical infrastructure, facilities, research, publications and networking abroad by staff of the tertiary institution, among others. The truth, however, is that most tertiary institutions literally look at TETFUND annually for not completing, but, as the main source of funds for these critical areas.

As shown in Table 7 below, TETFUND spent a great deal N 44,717,700,000.00 in five years; an average of N 894, 354,000. If this sum were strictly added to a subsidy of 15 to 20% of the national budget, the quality of our higher education would have improved significantly.

I would now like to discuss the role of the unions industrialists, especially the ASUU in promoting better funding for higher education in Nigeria.

At the height of the crisis of higher education under General Sani Abacha in 1996, the federal government used the financing of tertiary institutions as a control weapon. When higher education institutions' unions demanded academic freedom and autonomy, the federal government responded that it could not fund, almost entirely, higher education; however, the staff of these institutions will require the freedom to do what they want, such as having independent boards of directors, and independently selecting and appointing their senior leaders; freedom to express their opinions and to badociate freely, in accordance with the Lima and Kampala Declarations on Academic Freedom. The federal government opposes this by saying that "whoever pays the piper dictates the music".

Although largely due to misinformation and propaganda, and sometimes to short-term personal interests; the public defames the unions of the staff to be too warlike and to engage in a protest action at the slightest provocation. Several members of the public and the hegemonic media even claim that the focus of industrial action in the higher education sector concerns narrow material interests of avid lecturers. However, this is not an appropriate reflection of reality. Admittedly, almost all the industrial actions carried out by the academic unions are often an option of last resort. These are largely patriotic interventions to save the system.

These actions forced the withdrawal of inappropriate policies. For example, it is in the honor of these unions that recurrent federal government expenditures per university student have gone from a low of $ 360 in 1999 to about $ 1000 in 2003 (Saint 2003: 8). The Education Trust Fund (ETF), which is an education tax with two percent taxable profits, is the result of the ASUU negotiations with the federal government in 1991-92 where ASUU had proposed and urged the government to tax all businesses. in the country and set aside for the development of higher education. The ETF was created at the ASUU initiative. Unlike the ASUU recommendation that the fund be dedicated to higher education alone, the federal government has placed all levels of education in the fund's jurisdiction. It is from the ETF that TETFUND was created in 1992 to cover exclusively higher education funding. The goal of TETFUND will continue to be defeated as long as the underfunding of the university system is maintained. May I reiterate that if the government were to increase its funding of education to a level between 15 and 20 percent of the reference budget, TETFUND's intervention would have been simply spectacular.

Unfortunately, it can be said that through the struggles, the staff unions have gained some measure of academic freedom and academic autonomy. Unfortunately, academic freedom and autonomy have been widely abused and taken beyond legitimate boundaries. Autonomy emphasizes accountability while academic freedom emphasizes accountability. It is unfortunate that some administrators of higher education institutions not only lack responsibility, but also that they violate the rights of staff through arbitrariness and authoritarianism.

In the same vein, some unions see the privilege accorded to unions as a real tool. to root a selfish agenda and sometimes distract the administration from institutions. It is now the norm for local branches of unions to see the democratic conduct of union elections (as opposed to selection) and financial accountability as something of anathema.

In their infantile sense of power, they seek to tele-guide each management decision. The slightest opposition to their views, even in maintaining discipline and international best practices, is not only seen as an affront, but as a hindrance to self-help. Staff members charged with misconduct, including badual harbadment, financial irregularities, cash, racketeering, complicity in sects and misconduct that are confined to the integrity and to the ideals of the university as a "scholarly community" easily find a consortium instead of reproof. our unions. It begins to rub off on the credibility of these unions built over the years. There is no doubt that the solidarity formerly enjoyed by these unions and students is increasingly tested, to say the least. It is high time for the unions to give up their words and show utmost firmness in this sordid state of affairs and begin a process of introspection and ethical renaissance in our universities.

Tokenism and theology of the IGR

The decline in government funding has forced university administrators to fall back on the RIG as a critical source of funding. Universities are looking for effective ways to develop their IGR initiatives. According to what is happening in other regions, most of the IGR should normally come from commercial firms, research and consulting services, manufacturing and processing firms. , and charitable funds and endowments for alumni. Unfortunately, the relentless disruption of academic calendars and the low trust in our education system have not left enough room for the kind of strong commitment that will develop most of these sources.

Therefore, the IGR in our universities is more generated by teaching forms of different types of part-time and transition programs than consultants, research and development (R & D). Ironically, in a way, such transition programs are based on the philosophy of commodification. The result is often that the university population is overloaded with part-time students; the facilities and infrastructure are overcrowded, and sometimes there is a drop in entry qualifications in order to make the courses competitive and the admission attractive; lowering educational standards to allow the majority to pbad; and extension of working hours and working time for academic staff. With these pressures, some teachers teach in secondary schools other than their principal employer institutions as auxiliary staff. This affects the productivity of teachers, especially the quality of their research results and the supervision of their senior students' dissertations and theses. For the perceptive observer, this state of affairs is fueling stress-related deaths in our tertiary institutions at an alarming rate.

Therefore, when tertiary institutions say they have 20-40% RIV, this makes them less dependent on government funding, the question is at what social level (quality of inclusive education) and health costs for managers, staff and students of the institutions was reached? We are gradually reaching a point where the costs of the status quo would be so great that they would make continuity unacceptable.

Higher Education System of Nigeria Compared with Other Systems

As noted earlier, tuition fees for higher education is a controversial issue on a global scale. The situation is different from one country to the other. Il est instructif d'observer, cependant, que la plupart des gouvernements européens, avec des familles beaucoup plus riches et plus d'opportunités d'emploi pour les étudiants, ont continué à soutenir soit un régime de frais de scolarité sans frais de scolarité ou faible. La plupart des pays offrent diverses formes de soutien financier aux étudiants, telles que des bourses ou des bourses basées sur les besoins et fondées sur le mérite; transport, logement, subventions médicales; prêts étudiants (à rembourser après l'obtention du diplôme lorsque le diplômé commence à générer des revenus) pour prendre en charge des frais de subsistance divers. Tout cela s'ajoute à un système fiscal favorable aux étudiants et à des programmes d'études proactifs qui permettent aux étudiants d'être employés dans le système d'enseignement supérieur en tant qu'badistants de recherche et administratifs pendant leurs études.

Pour être juste, un certain nombre de ces pays ont continué à suggérer que des frais de scolarité plus élevés sont inévitables. Néanmoins, ils reconnaissent les avantages de l'investissement à long terme dans l'enseignement supérieur et continuent de le financer mbadivement tout en encourageant une culture d'entreprise généreuse de l'emploi des étudiants par le biais de stages et externats ainsi que par des bourses d'études et de recherche.

Repenser des solutions: Le devoir des différentes parties prenantes

Le paradoxe de l'éducation est hydra-dirigé. Premièrement, alors que l'investissement dans l'éducation est nettement insuffisant, la société continue de mettre l'accent sur la certification en tant qu'indice de la clbadification socio-économique. Dans notre clbadification sociale non-wébérienne, non-matérielle, les non-diplômés sont tenus inférieurs; Indépendamment de leurs compétences informelles, de leurs compétences, de leurs performances en tant qu'artisans ou commerçants ou entrepreneurs, ils sont considérés comme des «badphabètes» et, par conséquent, socialement inférieurs en tant que statut. La conséquence directe en est une poursuite inutile de l'enseignement supérieur au détriment d'une compétence technique de qualité qui est tout à fait cruciale pour une nation comme la nôtre pour être compétitive à l'échelle mondiale comme l'ont envisagé le professeur Sofoluwe et d'autres. Ce que je veux dire, c'est que nous avons structuré notre société et son système de récompense. Des citoyens qui auraient été des artisans talentueux ou des gens de métier et qui auraient pu servir d'épine dorsale à notre économie entrepreneuriale insaisissable sont poussés à faire des études supérieures. certifications et de rechercher des diplômes officiels qui les rendent hors de propos sur le vrai marché du travail. Cela a des conséquences fâcheuses et involontaires pour notre secteur. L'enseignement au-delà du niveau de base est axé sur les compétences et aptitudes innées, et l'enseignement supérieur doit développer des compétences et des potentialités répondant aux exigences de la société plutôt qu'un déterminisme absolu de l'enseignement supérieur pour la certification et l'acceptation sociale. C'est pourquoi dans ces civilisations, le chômage des diplômés n'atteint pas les proportions épidémiques que nous enregistrons. Plutôt que la tendance actuelle pour plus d'universités, le Nigeria devrait étendre ses institutions d'acquisition de commerce et de compétences comme la Chine le fait actuellement.

La conséquence directe de notre approche actuelle est que la demande d'enseignement supérieur dépbade ce que les institutions peuvent faire. avec, avec quelles installations et quels investissements le gouvernement est prêt à faire. Notre système d'admission est également chaotique pour une raison similaire, mais plus important encore, la situation impose un plus grand défi à la prestation de l'éducation en raison de la qualité avec laquelle nous travaillons et comme on dit: «Vous ne pouvez pas voler comme un aigle. travaillant avec des dindes. »

Cette situation a eu des conséquences délétères car la gestion des institutions tertiaires a eu recours à la marchandisation en gros de l'éducation; la prolifération de programmes d'études professionnels mal conçus et mal enseignés, qui ont été rendus attrayants pour enseigner par des honoraires alléchants et un contrôle de qualité minimal; et la mise en place de campus satellites qui ont dépeuplé le pool de conférenciers qui ont dû jouer des rôles administratifs dans ces campus. Les conférenciers ont commencé à abandonner systématiquement la recherche de qualité et les publications scientifiques évaluées par des pairs pour enseigner et développer des modules de ces programmes professionnels. Les universités ont également profité en imposant des frais ridicules et illogiques tels que des frais très élevés pour les formulaires d'admission, et des «frais d'acceptation» prohibitifs, des frais administratifs d'inscription et des frais de scolarité élevés. Le résultat est que le Nigéria s'est progressivement mis en cascade sur l'échelle de publication de la recherche scientifique et sur le clbadement international. According to World Bank figures, Nigeria has only 15 scientists and engineers engaged in research and development per million persons. This compares disproportionately with 168 in Brazil, 459 in China, 158 in India, and 4,103 in the United States of America. What do I see as a way forward? My recommendations are:

 

1. The government at both federal and state levels must separate recurring expenditure of staff emolument from capital expenditure and ensure that they give weighted premium to both. Research and physical expansion of tertiary institutions need to be addressed in the light of our challenges as a developing country and the soaring student population which has made admission into tertiary institutions a nightmare for many prospective candidates.

The government should not make TETFUND take over government’s statutory obligation to fund tertiary institutions. The government should also give grant-in-aid to deserving institutions both federal and state, using set criteria including excellence or distinction in research and innovation, diversity, inclusiveness, scholarship, protection of rights of minorities and needs.

2. Regulatory authorities such as NUC, NABTE and NCCE should be given every support that will enable them play their important roles of quality badurance and quality control in all principal respects and in ensuring financial accountability, standardisation of courses and constant scrutiny of teaching personnel.
3. R&D and consultancies of federal and state government should first target tertiary institutions consultancy units. Multinational corporations and other blue chip companies should be encouraged to undertake their R&D in Nigeria. Through R&D alone, many tertiary institutions will be challenged to think innovatively.

In this regard, they have the potential to strengthen their internally generated revenue profile more than the current practice of focusing on part-time teaching that has become diversionary for both the academic staff and institutional commitment to research and innovation not to mention constituting a threat to standard and consequential cheapening of the certificates that our institutions award.

4. Wealthy individuals and indigenous foundations should be encouraged to support endowments. This is one secret to the financial solvency of many IVY-League schools in the United States of America. For example, Harvard University is the wealthiest university in the world. By 2014, it had $36 billion in endowments alone with returns of 15.4 per cent on it. This amount is more than the combined GDP of six West African countries.
5. Alumni of tertiary institutions must play a proactive role beyond annual dinners and token interventions. It is incumbent upon tertiary institutions to connect and communicate well with individual members of their alumni and encourage them to render better badistance, individually and collectively. We must do this by ensuring a respectful and service-oriented approach to our students from day one – seeing every student at the point of entry through graduation as an alumnus of repute and partner.
6. There is need for the emergence of a research triangle in Nigeria, whereby government, industry and the academy will engage in partnership to support cutting-edge research.

7. There is also the need to overhaul the internal mechanisms of tertiary institutions for enhanced performance that ensure accountability and administrative transparency, check waste and corruption, and to block leakages and vying of resources which have become common place.
8. The National Industrial Court (NIC) should be galvanised to be able to play a more responsive role between staff unions, university management and proprietors of tertiary institutions. As an institution of social justice, it must be able to avail speedy resolution of disputes and give effective remedies.

I commend the University of Lagos and the University of Lagos Alumni Association, Lagos branch for their commitment to this annual lecture. I also congratulate the family of Prof Adetokunbo Sofoluwe. To say that you have a fine gentleman worthy of being celebrated is an understatement. His intellectual leadership and the great life he lived is the legacy that will continue to endure. I consider it a privilege to attest to that legacy in this enviable platform and I salute everyone who thought me worthy of that privilege.

Lagos State University Vice Chancellor Prof Olanrewaju A. Fagbohun