The InfoStride Forum

 

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Ekiti State University Council, Prof. Jide Osuntokun, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patrick Oladipo Aina, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Professor Prof. J. O. Aribisala, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Development, Professor Prof. (Mrs.) E. Y. Aderibigbe, Members of Ekiti State University Council & Senate, Deans, directors, and Heads of Institutions, Parents, Students, and Invited Guests

I bring you warm and fraternal greetings from the people of Ghana. It is a great pleasure to join you –students, lectures, researchers, professors, administrative staff, and others associated with Ekiti State University for this very important convocation. Permit me to use this occasion to congratulate all your students who will be graduating for their achievements, and to also thank all the various categories of Ekiti State University staff whose unwavering perseverance and determination in the face of mounting challenges in higher education across our continent, continue to dedicate their lives to mentoring the next generation of African leaders brought of teaching and research.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, may I also use the opportunity of today, to challenge and encourage your new graduates to reflect on how they can use the skills they have acquired and the confidence Ekiti State University has reposed in them, to assist in transforming Nigeria, Africa and the World. Africa, our continent is on the rise again, and I urge you all to look out for the many opportunities hidden in plain sight, as you reflect on your career options.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, as we contemplate how to reclaim the lost glory of African University today, permit me to pay tribute to one of Africa's greatest scholars of literature-Professor Chinua Achebe-who has joined his ancestors. As young boy in secondary school in Ghana, I read Professor Achebe's novels and have since remained enthralled by his imaginary capabilities, as well as, the depth and complexity of his writing abilities.

In my estimation, Professor, Achebe's influence on Africa's literary writing is comparable to the kind of influence both William Shakespeare and Pushkin had on English and Russian novelist respectively. Judging from reactions across the continent to the news of his passing, Africa is curtailing thankful to Nigeria for the gift of such an outstanding and exemplary scholar. Indeed Professor Achebe invented and played the game of creative thinking to perfection, and even in death, he will continue to inspired and fascinate several generations to come. While we mourn his loss, we must also celebrate his tremendous contribution to African literary scholarship. Professor Achebe was a major player in the heady days of African University education.

I find my topic, "University Governance and Reclaiming the Lost Glory: The Challenges and possibilities of World Class Universities in Africa" apposite, especially in the context of great and rapid change in our time, facilitated by globalization and the fast that we hardly have the luxury to catch our breath. It was not too long ago when the telephone was an item to be found in a few homes and a couple of office. The rest, they say, is history; but in this case, we may also say that the rest is the present. Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is not surprising that there have been no hard definitions that everyone shared, regarding what makes a University world class. In the first place, is 'world class' an absolute term or a relative term? In its unit of concept is it an institution or a system? 'World class' is defined by the dictionary as "ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence".

Depending on who one talks to, different definitions exist for the description for different stakeholders:

Governments and taxpayers will emphasize a cost-benefit view, focusing on efficiency and productivity. While employers of graduate students will consider the qualification of graduates and their effectiveness. Students and their parents will prioritize the quality of instruction; while faculty and administrators will highly rate the quality of research.

Let's consider a couple of attributable definition;- Ambrose King, former vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, expressed it this way: "it has faculty regularly publishing their research in the top defining journals in their respective disciplines; the graduate student body is truly international in origin; and the graduates are employable anywhere in the world'. Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University defines in thus: "a peer review system in which standard re set by leaders of the field and those leaders are themselves challenged and judged by this process'. "For universities, world-class standing is built on reputation and perception – often seen as subjective and uncertain-and it requires outstanding performance in many events."

Other definitions have the following worlds running through them: "A minimum standard" or "a relative position in the form of raking"

- "industrial definition or quality means a quarantee that something meets a certain basic standard.

- "top of the world rankings"

-  "being world class must have a system dimension"

-  or, "a worldwide quality register", as the "International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) establishes the description".

ertain strands can be recognized in the efforts to define what appears subjective. The general agreement, however, emphasizes faculty that regularly publishes its research in top defining journals in their respective disciplines; the graduate student body as truly international in origin and graduates employable anywhere in the world. We may thus briefly sum up the world class university as an institution on higher learning that has reputation's recognition and outstanding performance in many fields.

The superior results of these institutions include highly sought graduates, leading edge research, and dynamics knowledge and technological transfer. The complementary sets of factors at play in a world class university include a high concentration of talent in both faculty and students, abundant resources to offer a rich learning environment and to conduct advanced research and as well, favorable governance features that encouraged leadership, strategic vision, innovation and flexibility that enable institutions to make decisions and manage resources without being encumbered by bureaucracy. The dynamic interaction among these groups of features should make a good case for distinguishing characterizes of high ranking universities.

There is wide agreement that great universities have three major roles:

(1) excellence in education of their student; (2) research, development and dissemination of knowledge; and (3) activities contributing to the cultural;, scientific, and civic life of society, sustainable funding to ensure excellence and access.

By excellence in education we refer to the resources and organization of undergraduate, graduate and professional instruction and educational opportunities for students. Clearly, this goal requires outstanding faculty, high quality teaching and other instructional activities, and availability of good libraries, laboratories, and other pertinent facilities as well as highly prepared and motivated students who also serve to educate through their peer influence. Research, development, and dissemination of knowledge refer to the embryonic identification, growth, and extension of concepts and ideas as well as their transformation into applications goods and services that enhance understanding and welfare. Activities contributing to the cultural, scientific, and civic life of society are many and varied, but they include conferences, publications artistic events and form as well as provision of services (e.g.) medical clinics and hospitals and museums) that engage and contribute to the larger community including the regional, national, and international communities.

We may think that a World Class University evaluation should consider:

(i) Institutional characteristics that may affect quality  (ii) Instructional quality;

(iii)  Research quality; and  (iv) Student quality.

The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiaotong University established a world-wide ranking of universities starting in 2003. Rankings are based upon several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel prizes and Field medals, highly cited researchers, articles published in Nature and science, articles indexed in major citation indices, and the academic measures for each institution when divided by professional or staff.

A world Class University evaluation should consider: (i) Institutional characteristics that may affect quality; (ii) Instructional quality; (iii) research quality; and (iv) student quality.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, my topic also refers to lost glory and the need to reclaim it as we ponder on the issues that confront our march towards excellence in the establishment of universities of world class stature on our continent.

It is therefore appropriate to situate this lecture on the theme "University Governance and Re-claiming the Lost Glory: the Challenges of Attaining World Class Universities" with a snapshot of that era in honor of this great son, Chinua Achebe of Africa. At the dawn of independence, university education was a rare privilege in Africa, and only about 9% of the population across the continent was literate. Now, if you imagine the hundreds of public universities established in the various countries across the continent since the 1960s, and the many more private ones that emerged especially since the 1980s, it is fair to argue that we have made some great progress in opening up access to higher education on the continent.

But as we push for more access, and celebrate the expansion, it is also essential that we undertake an honest introspective reflective on the standing and status of university education in Africa today, and share ideas on how to reclaim what is often considered the lost glory of African Universities in the context of our collectives yearning for world class status of our institutions of higher learning.

The founding fathers of our various nations across the African continent were of the view that the territorial entities they inherited from the colonial regime were nothing more that constellations of diverse ethnic groups that were forces to co-exist through the coercive mechanism of the colonial administrations. Against this background, education-and university education in particular was seen as the means to (a) build a cohesive nation out of the new states, (b) produce the needed human capital for social economic transformation, and ( c) nursing beds for generating the requisite ideas to solve the many continent several new public universities were established, and existing ones resourced to create conducive environments for effective and efficient knowledge production.

Beyond the pursuit of this instrumentalist agenda African universities derived their honour and relevance, which is now commonly, termed "lost glory", from the feed intellectual powers of their academics. In their glory, the vibrations of lively debates from African universities permeated the generality of our societies, and our universities were seen as the true citadels of knowledge as well as the fountains of ideas and innovation.

The university campuses were noted for highly respected and widely sought after newsletters, and academic journals that feature intellectual viewpoints and counter viewpoints on such important issues as socialism, capitalism, nationalism, party systems, democracy and series of philosophically loaded concepts such as "ujuma", negritude", "communocracy", "harambee", "rainbow nation" used by various African leaders to breathe life into their abstractions of nation-building. One of the remarkable aspects of the early postcolonial era in Africa was that the nationalists themselves demonstrated profound love and admiration for intellectual life. Kwame Nkrumah, the greatest son of Africa, who I am honored to call a predecessor, is noted to have written some of the most thought-provoking books and academic articles spanning several disciplines including African philosophy, economics, political science, religion, and anthropology. Julius Nyerere, the founding father of Tanzania did not only translate two of Shakespeare's books— The Merchant of Venice and Julius Ceaser into Kiswahili and they were published by Oxford University Press, he was also noted for having left a legacy of tremendously intellectual contributions to understanding the nature and dynamics of African collectivism.

Jomo Kenyatta, the founder of the Kenya is widely revered as one of Africa's foremost social anthropologist for authoring Facing Mr. Kenya, which is considered in many circles as a classic in the discipline. Similarly to demonstrate his love for intellectual works, and fascination with literature, the founding father of Uganda included "Milton" in his original names—Apolo Obete to illustrate his fondness for John Milton's epic Poem "Paradise Lost. The list is as many as countries that were there at the time, but the point is that in the early years of indices African universities displayed fascination with ideas, and pulled our societies including the political elites along in debates.

In their glory, African universities through their intellectuals demonstrated tremendous commitment to the problems faced by the post-colonial states, and felt obligated to use their skills and expertise to find solutions to the challenges of nation- building and development. African universities committed themselves to meticulous scientific research and knowledge production on the basis of African epistemology.  In their glory, African universities prioritized the interest and mentoring, of students over and above the pursuit of individual material interests. They kept their gaze on the intrinsic link between quality research output and the overall wellbeing of the larger societies in which they existed.  During that era, African Universities were generally perceived as budding forces to reckon with especially in relation to the quality of intellectual content of early post-colonial scholars.

Indeed in those days, African universities were alive to the view that university education contributes to both improved productivity and higher income status. Importantly, our universities in the their glory were quite conscious that a well-educated and skilled labour force is fundamental to the creation of u knowledge-society; and rook the view that comparative advantage of countries came more from technical innovations and the competitive use of knowledge, than from possession of natural resources or cheap labour. That which we have lost was a period of vivacious and scintillating intellectualism largely championed by our universities and proudly supported by die national political elites.

Vice Chancellor, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, there is a historical antecedent to the glorious days. In the not so remote past, the first university in the World was located in AFRICA.  Africa has a rich past that needs to be echoed. The question of what happened ought to be answered and answered quickly. Even though such details might not be lost on an audience such as this one, they are worthy of recalling, at the least to remind us all that the path towards excellence, made up of great people, great programs and great outcomes, is as African as it is global.

The University then was organized around three great Masjids or Mosques. Not only did students at this institution of higher learning seek knowledge, but they also purified their souls through the sciences of Islam. Islam breeds leaders that are God fearing just honest, trustworthy and of excellent moral character, Graduate students¹ were the embodiment of the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet of Islam.

Around the 12th century the University of Timbuktu had an attendance of 25,000 students in a city which had a population of 100, 000 people. The students came from all corners of the African continent in search of excellence in knowledge and trade. On graduation day, students were given Turbans. Today they wear caps whose significance is lost on most. The turban symbolizes divine light, wisdom, knowledge and excellent moral conduct. The tin ban represents the demarcation line between knowledge and ignorance. The knots and circles of the turban represent the name Allah. This means that the graduate students know the divine obligations and responsibilities to be discharged honorably in their communities and toward their fellow men and women.

The rulers and caliphs or Muslims state leaders such as Askia. Mohammed of the Songhai Empire, Mansa Musa of the Mali an Empire, Shayk Amadu of the Fulani caliphate of Massina, The Emirs and sultans of the provinces of the Sudan often sent crucial questions to the Ulemas or scholars of Timbuktu for solutions.

I am raising this historical fact not for the purposes of nostalgia, or simply to re-echo our rich past or even just to link the main thrusts of my topic, although all of these will be pertinent. I refer to this piece of information in order to remind us of an aspect of our lost glory and most importantly, the relevance of the tenets of that education, with its focus on knowledge and strong moral character and the solid links between society and academia.  A university of excellence in Africa in our times must of urgency have even more robust, durable and productive relationship with government, each seeing the other as partner, with all the connotations imbued in die description.  Such relevance is pant of the march to excellence, I humbly submit.

The universities that were set up us the nineteen forties, including the universities of Ghana and Ibadan, were modeled upon universities in the colonizing, country and were immediately assumed to be centers of excellence. So much water has passed under the bridge, with the independent countries struggling to make the institutions of higher learning directly relevant to their history, culture, economic and social contexts. The degree of luster is not the same, due to many acts of history and economics.

The irony, however is that currently both the intellectuals in our universities and the political elites of the early post-colonial years were either partially or wholly products of mostly western universities. Arguably with the exception of South Africa with its unfortunate but unique history, current African universities south of the Sahara are therefore yet to produce the brand of scholarship and intellectualism associated with the period within which the glorious past is often situated. This indeed is a sad commentary on our attempt at decolonizing African universities and equipping them to play leading roles in the developmental processes especially in the early years.

Mr. Vice Chancellor, African Universities lost their budding glory of the early years for a .number of reasons. First, the political elites felt that the universities, especially those established in the colonial period, were too slow in shedding oil the colonial hangover of dominant liberal arts and basic sciences when what the new nations needed was high level professionals with sophisticated skills for public service and leadership.

This was interpreted by the political elites as lack of commitment by the African intellectuals and the universities they inhabit, to their defined spatial and epistemological frontiers - which was knowledge production for national integration and development.

Second, the relationship between intellectuals in African universities and the political elites in our various countries grew increasing sour as research findings by academics shone more light on, and raised new complex questions about the ideological premises of nation-building and development as articulated by the political elites of the time. For instance, it was difficult for African intellectuals to ignore regional imbalances in the distributions of resources and the broad day light corruption of public officials as they analyze the behaviors at the foreground of the developmental processes.

These developments reconfigured how African universities and the political elite viewed themselves. Collaboration and shared fascination with ideas, innovation, and intellectual discourse gave way to mutual suspicion and open antagonism. By the late 1970s, African intellectuals considered themselves endangered species as the political elite deployed authoritarian tactics to restrict frontiers of academic freedom. But this change in relationship was also shaped by the Cold War politics and the crisis of development during the period.

While Cold War politics provided a window of opportunity for the African political elite of the time to enact all manner of legislations to mute dissenting intellectual voices; the crisis of development of the period resulted in diminished state funding of the university activities not the least of which is research. Feeling endangered and almost irrelevant, most intellectuals in African universities responded to these developments by fleeing their countries to the waiting arms of western universities where most of their initial intellectual socializations had occurred. The migration of early African intellectuals especially to the global north truncated the process of glory and praise associated with African intellectualism in the years immediately following independence; and in the process weakened the ability of African universities to single-handedly or collaboratively produce high caliber of intellectuals comparable to the first generation of post-colonial scholars.

Taken together, these developments have undermined the ability of African universities to assert themselves on the world stage as originally envisioned. Currently and sadly, Africa's share of global knowledge production is the lowest and continues to decline, and reports from various citation indexes show the largest majority of scholars and intellectual with expertise even on Africa do not come from the continent.

Apart from 4 universities in South Africa, no Sub-Saharan University is well ranked. The statistics are depressing and not an accurate reflection of the talent we have in our universities. The capacity to research is concentrated in a few countries on our continent.

Africa produces around 3% of books published, but consumes around

12%.

· Africa produced 0.2% of online content in 2002; - if South Africa is excluded, 0.02%.

· The major Northern scholarly journals account for 80% of articles in the ISI indexes; developing countries produce just 2.5%.

· In Africa only SA has (just) 0.5% of the articles in Thompson

· Scientific indexed journals.

The good news is that all is not lost. So much has changed on our continent including the following key strengths and opportunities that we can leverage for the creation and sustenance of world class universities:

New Global Context

· greatest economic growth potential

· Large number of international companies

· Africa is an important market

· Key universities have improved their quality

· The world is becoming more globally connected

· Cross-cultural skids which can ho acquired by living and working in Africa are becoming more useful and discernible

· Finally studying in Africa is cost effective

· African graduated are competitive

· More partnership between African Universities and others

· As a result of the potential offered by the Internet, scholarly publishing and research are undergoing a revolution

· There are new opportunities for disseminating scientific information and for democratising access to research knowledge.

· There are change; in the way science is being carried out – and hence the need for new capabilities.

· It is not only dissemination that is changing, but the way that scientific research is conducted

The pressures of our times have made it imperative to invite private participation in the provision of higher learning. Generally speaking we have done so, and we need to assist them to effectively participate in the drive towards the establishment of world class universities that should have as its sole mandate creating a world class continent that our citizenry deserve.

Mr. Vice Chancellor, Professors, Deans, Directors, and Students, the quest for a world class university status must be framed in a manner that allow African universities to be detached hut supported by the state, intellectually connected to the wider scientific and learning community, and culturally close to African societies. In the last two decades, several countries on the continent have taken steps to allow African universities to be truly autonomous by ensuring that the position of chancellor which hitherto were the reserved of Heads of States are no long the case. However, it is fair to also argue that the drive by African Universities to attain the status of world-class universities would require pushing the limits of existing internal governance arrangements and a conscientious re-examination of their modes of operations.

This kind of self-examination requires that African universities must subject themselves to serious and rigorous scientific evaluation of their operations in order to design the appropriate and sound policies that will lead to the emergence of world-class institutions of higher learning in the region. While the perennial argument of lack of financial resources is a legitimate one and should be collectively tackled, it is worth noting that unless and until our universities show a clear sign of ability to use the power of research and innovation to generate solutions, it would be difficult for the funding argument to arrest the sympathy of our peoples and those entrusted with political power.

In addition, our universities must undertake further reforms in their management practices to deepen their commitment to the principles of accountability and transparency. Currently, aspects of the governance and decision making mechanism in several universities across are shrouded in secrecy under the guise of academic freedom. While we must all work to jealously protect and promote academic freedom in the African context, it is important for universities desirous to attain world class status to ensure that crucial management decisions involving recruitment of faculty and students, retention, promotion, provision of sabbatical leaves, allocation of workloads, award of research grants, supervision of graduate students, and institutional disciplinary frameworks as well as appeals processes are open and transparent.

Similarly, Mr. Vice Chancellor, African universities must be willing to voluntarily submit to external auditing of their financial governance system to booster their arguments for increased funding from government at all levels. Again it is important not to misconstrue academic freedom to mean freedom from full disclosure, transparency and accountability.  Instead, in the modern world, academic freedom must be seen to include the freedom for academic institutions to willingly subject themselves to external scrutiny without compromising the fundamental principles of their operations.

Against the background of resource constraints, it is difficult to sustain arguments calling for increase financial resources for die operations of African institutions of higher learning that continue to hold the view that academic transparency and full disclosure erodes the ideals of academic freedom. If governments at all levels are to prioritize funding of public universities, which by the way must be encouraged, then it is just fair that governments as well as the generality of the population know the full details of how such resources are used.

Institutions of higher learning are expected to contribute by making their countries globally competitive. They can do this by developing a skilled, productive, and flexible labor force and by creating, applying and spreading new ideas and technologies.  In addition to their contribution to economic development, these institutions play a key societal role by serving as cultural institutions, centers for social commentary and criticism, and intellectual hubs. The contributions of Achebe created such an intellectual context for all who read his works; the first university in Africa deepened its relevance by stimulating the thought processes of the decision makers. The high-level specialists, scientists and researchers that these institutions train are critical in our desire to achieve poverty reduction by making progress in agriculture, health, education and environmental protection, just to name a few. Research is the mainstay of these institutions in generating new knowledge in support of the national innovation system.

How then does Africa get to create world class universities? Or, put differently, why would Africa need world class universities? There are a combination of possibilities that require concerted efforts by government and the existing institutions of higher learning; some of which I have already en

o As a result of the potential offered by the Internet, scholarly publishing and research are undergoing a revolution

o There are new opportunities for disseminating scientific information and for democratising access to research knowledge.

o There are changes in the way science is being carried out – and hence the need for new capabilities.

o It is not only dissemination that is changing, but the way that scientific research is conducted

The role of government:

o Upgrading existing institutions

o Merging existing Institutions

o Massive investment: Human, Finance and equipment

Role of institution:

o Change of Management

o Strategy at institutional level

o Government

o Cost effective culture

o Understand the use and limitations of ranking metrics

o Explore effective benchmarking approaches

o Attract Talents

These by themselves are not enough. All our efforts must but be placed within the context of competing basic demands on our national and continental resources, including quality basic education, health, water, food, shelter, roads, energy. I suggest we deepen our quality assurance sectors to ensure a solid monitoring and evaluation system in finance allocation and expenditure in our institution of higher learning and the insistence on high quality, relevant and innovative outcomes.

The issue of autonomy is crucial here, in allowing for flexibility in governing, management and fund generation, with the paramount aim of producing graduates who are capable of turning national and continental challenges into opportunity for many, including themselves. Such space would as well, provide the environment to hire highly qualified staff and attract the right caliber of students and make it attractive and imperative for university to link up with industry and thereby enhance their relevance and create novel sources of wealth.

It is the institution of higher learning that must drive this march towards excellence, by beginning to make rigorous demands on its faculty and students. A strong, visionary leadership at all levels, its shared purpose, consistent strategy, proven track record and output of its students will be spokes in the wheel that carry that drive towards and sustenance of a world class university. Such universities in Africa, distinguished, ladies and gentlemen, will be meaningful if they emphasize the central position of the continental environment in the drive towards excellence.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to urge all of us, as political leaders, thinkers, workers of all sectors and levels on the continent, to continue to diversify our economies and promote and support the private sector. We need to focus on the provision of infrastructure and enhance the atmosphere that allows our industries to grow and to compete globally. By so doing shall we place our industries in the position to increase productivity and 19 expand employment opportunities and provide a dynamic labor market that will absorb the transfer of technological know how, the end results of the leading-edge research, and the high quality graduates that will come from these universities of excellence.

We also need to work out some benchmarking mechanism that allows the institutions to assess their progress at specified points in time, even as they benchmark against institutions of comparable status.

Mr. Vice Chancellor, no university in Africa, and for that matter elsewhere can attain world-class status without the hard work of its research, teaching and administrative staff. Often it is a university's ability to carry out research and make the findings applicable to real life challenges that paves the way for world-class status. This requires that the managements of African universities must keep their eyes on performance and productivity of their staff at all levels. As such our universities must develop new measures for tracking research output and the corresponding impact of such outputs in policy and the social transformation processes across the continent. Research is the key to innovation, and innovation is the vehicle for positive social change. We must therefore ensure that resources earmarked for conducting research are used for that purpose, and the outcomes are published in the spirit of knowledge sharing and applied to achieve practical efforts

Mr. Vice Chancellor, the vision to attain world-class university status also requires that the managements of African universities take immediate steps to eliminate the remaining vestiges of colonial legacies that continue to mediate the operations of our universities. In this sense, we must encourage our universities to establish reputable peer-review academic journals comparable to others elsewhere in the world as avenues for our academics and researchers to share the outcome of their research finding in journals easily accessible to the intellectual community on the continent and beyond. The existing managerial practice that requires university faculty to publish their research output in international journals, which has become the euphemism of academic journals from the global north does entrench colonial power relations and disadvantages our intellectuals and policy makers in several ways.

Mr. Vice Chancellor, the push for African universities to attain world-class status, must be seen as the collective responsibility of governments, the universities, and our African societies. But if African universities are serious about reclaiming their glory, they must assume the leadership positions in efforts to reduce existing students-lecture ratios without compromising access to higher education. We cannot overload lecture halls with large numbers of students per class and expect that the required attention to each student's development and mentoring would be given. No social institution is better placed to generate ideas and innovations for solving our problems than the universities, and as a result we must not shy away from demanding from them what is their rightful responsibility.

Mr. Vice Chancellor, the quest for world-class university status should not be a catalyst for unhealthy rivalry between our universities, rather we must approach it as an opportunity for competing for the best academic staff and students, and an avenue for developing a framework for our universities to exchange their students and faculty with other universities across the continent. While the current exchange programs that favour relations with western universities provides excellent exposure for our students and faculty, it has also resulted in a situation where our students crave more for western educational experience than for similar experiences with institutions of higher learning on the continent. Attaining a world-class university status should not be taken to mean competition to develop more relations with western educational institutions. Rather our universities must discover their individual niches and fully develop and market them for the appreciation of the world.

Mr. Vice Chancellor, no one university in Africa can attain world-class status without collaborating with other universities on the continent.  I therefore implore those in charge of university governance on the continent to use the platforms provided by continental organizations such as the Association of Africa Universities (AAU) AWAU, other regional academic association and the CODESRIA to deepen collaboration on all fronts as a mechanisms for cross-fertilization of ideas and joint research opportunities.

Such collaboration must be situated within the larger framework of Pan-Africanism, and designed to make it possible for Africans everywhere on the continent desirous of higher education to access it anywhere without the restrictions and limitations often imposed on foreign students. African students should not be considered foreign students in Africa; the challenge therefore is for the management of our universities to take lead in putting this paradox to an end.

Mr. Vice Chancellor let me emphasize that our desire to attain the status of world-class universities in Africa will be a mirage unless lecturers and those entrusted with teaching and mentoring students demonstrate high sense of professionalism and competence in their various disciplines. While 1 applaud the lecturers in our universities, it is important also to stress that academic professionalism and competence often reflects in the extent to which students are challenged through the academic curricular, the depth of awareness and ability of lecturers to allow contemporary debates in their disciplines to shine through their lectures, the quality of assignments students are given, and the willingness to integrate modern technologies in teaching and learning. This requires that university managements across the continent consider establishing professional development unit for their faculty members to constantly build capacity in teaching, learning, and educational technologies.

Mr. Chancellor, it is worth noting that no university can ever achieve a world-class university status; without its alumni. Your alumni arc the ambassadors of your institutions. But the ability of African universities to have committed and benevolent alumni is dependent largely on campus experience of students.  Let me use this opportunity to urge all our universities to develop the appropriate balances in power relations, and nurture African student; in a manner that allows them to look back on their universities with profound nostalgia long after they have finished and gone. While I would like to use the liberty granted by this occasion to appeal to alumni of our various universities across the continent to rise up arid be counted, may I urge university managements to also take concrete steps to nurture the interest of their alumni m their operations.

Finally, Mr. Vice Chancellor, 1 am deeply concerned about the growing gap between our universities, public policy, and industry. While acknowledging the structural as well as the philosophical factors underpinning ibis gap, ii is unacceptable to continue on that trajectory. It is impossible to imagine a university attaining world-class status without direct linkages to policy and industry.

African universities stand to benefit enormously from developing stronger and mutually beneficial relations with industries and public policy. Governments are demanding research ideas that will help solve the challenges posed by terrorism, natural resource management, post conflict initiatives, nation building, the crisis of contemporary Pan-Africanism, and national financial crisis. These present windows of opportunity for our universities to elevate their standing on the global stage, and simultaneously expand the scope of their internally generated resources.

Congratulations again to all those who will be receiving various categories of degrees at this convocation, and many thanks to the Council and Senate of the Ekiti State University for the opportunity to share these ideas with you. My lecture is addressed to all African universities, and I hope Ekiti State University will lead the crusade for the changes we envision in higher education across the continent.

I thank you for your kind attention.

 

 

Via: Ekiti State University