Why Nigerian Universities Rank Low In The World — Buhari

Rather than facilitate a constant interplay of theory and practice by encouraging professionals to impart some industry knowledge, this category of academics will hide under anachronistic systemic rules to frustrate any attempt at a theory-praxis symbiosis.

Professionals with invaluable field experience who attempt to join the faculty are usually offered repugnant positions in order to discourage them. As a result, students are deprived of the much needed industry skills that could enhance their employability.

But according to available information, there are a few exceptions, as the Department of Music, Obafemi Awolowo University is reported to have recently appointed juju music maestro, King Sunny Ade as a Visiting Lecturer. Accomplished composer, musician, artist, designer and administrator, Sir Victor Uwaifo is probably still teaching at the University of Benin following his engagement by the school at a point. More of this town and gown synergy is required in all fields of study if Nigerian universities are to be in reckoning for serious webometrics.

The increasingly confusing admission process is another reason why the nation’s universities are ranked low. The Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) was doing well before the peculiar Nigerian vices overwhelmed the body. Disturbed by the erosion of JAMB’s credibility, stakeholders came up with Post-UME Tests, an intervention some universities have also turned into an opportunity to serve primordial interests.

Students’ disposition to learning and research is another source of concern. Generally, the present generation of the country’s undergraduates just read to pass examinations. There is a pervasive lazy attitude to learning, aided, ironically, by the internet. Libraries are occupied only when examinations are approaching and the quality of assignments and long essays continues to ebb.

The country’s high unemployment rate equally makes nonsense of the little efforts made by our universities. It is seriously questioning the essence of university education. With significant emphasis on theory, Nigerian universities continue to produce graduates with little or no entrepreneurial orientation. While most of the schools now have tangential entrepreneurial contents at the General Studies level, current national and global economic realities demand that this be made a core element of curriculum.

As President Buhari pointed out at that convocation ceremony, Nigeria is blessed with an abundance of talents who excel elsewhere but appear incapacitated at home. Therefore, to address the rot in the nation’s universities and make them eligible for noticeable ranking, we must meticulously interrogate the fundamentals and be ready to take hard decisions. In addition to emplacing a sustainable paradigm for injection of funds and facilities into the system, a periodic academic staff audit is also necessary. This should be handled by independent and objective assessors beyond the universities. The essence is to ensure quality and gradually weed out those who see the job as a mere meal ticket and those who use the platform to harass, intimidate and extort students.

Academic staff should collaborate more in the area of teaching, research and mentoring instead of bickering and being negatively envious of one another. They should also stop discouraging professionals who genuinely wish to add value to the system. Most times, their disposition is borne out of envy and complex and a morbid passion to protect imaginary territories. In today’s world, gown and town need each other. More objectivity should go into the admission process while undergraduates should have an eclectic attitude to learning, research and studying. The rot in Nigerian ivory tower should not be allowed to continue. We all have a role to play in repositioning our universities and make them citadels of pride and key players in the global academic community that they once were.