Prof. Francisca Oladipo, vice chancellor of Thomas Adewumi University (TAU), a self-sustaining tertiary institution located in Oko, Kwara State on a secured 300 hectares of land, through a virtual conference, spoke with selected education correspondents on the university’s giant strides in about three years of its existence. The university, she said, has increased its accredited programmes to 27 from the initial 13. For the current session, it has admitted close to 700 students from 66 students when she took charge, Assistant Editor Bola Olajuwon reports
On how she was recruited
I was headhunted for this position and I saw the sincerity in the founder that the main aim of setting up the university was to provide employment opportunities for people apart from training and to ensure that the project does not become a burden to him. We devised a strategy to minimise cost to the barest minimum because we don’t enjoy funding from Tetfund or anywhere except from him.
The varsity community and self-sustaining programmes
We had 66 students when I came and school charges couldn’t do anything. The second set of students were 102 or thereabout.
We are located in a rural community with an abundance of about 300 hectares of land most of which were not developed and we decided to go into farming.
We then empowered all our works departments like engineering, furniture, amongst others to do things ourselves 100 per cent, using the local materials around us in construction, building and fabrication. So, each time we cut a tree for construction, we replanted. We made our own hostel lockers, beds, road mapping and building construction, asphalting and bricks production. We grow all the food we eat on our farm and now boast of a cattle ranch, rear our own fish for local consumption.
We are fully residential, so our students are not allowed to cook. That is why we embarked on a deliberate process to look for ways to significantly reduce the cost of food that they buy and the easiest way is to grow them ourselves. Once we harvest our tomatoes and dehydrate them, the whole of next year, we will have no cause to buy any and next, we are going into onion production, we make our own palm oil.
Our decision was borne out of necessity to control cost and we have to utilise the land and natural resources around us. Additionally, we were able to get people from the local community in Oko to work in our building sites to generate decent income. The road marking in the ongoing construction of the Omu-Aran road project by the Kwara State Government was done by our 200 level engineering students. For us here, it is not just about studying, you must get your hands dirty and that is why as the vice chancellor, I also teach. Though I was a city girl and was having my post doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before now, I drive tractors myself even though I had never farmed in my life before now.
We have to keep the system running and growing using what we have. That has been our main propelling factor.
Academic ranking and programmes
In terms of ranking, we are the fourth in Kwara and ahead of Al-Hikmah University and we are number 11 now of all the private universities in Nigeria and 39th in the over 300 in the whole of the country.
When I came in, the university had no strategic plan, a lot of things were happening but not coordinated and I had to produce one. We started with 13 academic programmes and by next year September, we are going to admit our first set of medical students. This together with law were never in the plan before, but was planned for after 25 years of the university’s establishment. I resumed in August and by October, we got NUC’s approval to start law though it was daunting, but I knew we must offer signature academic programmes if we want to stand out.
We are one of the three universities in Nigeria with Doctorate in Physiotherapy. It’s not even in the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) where they have bachelor degree. UNILORIN is our mentor university but they don’t have a full faculty of nursing science yet like us and we have gotten a full operational licence from the NUC. Now, we are about to start our open distance learning. So we have moved to 27 strong academic programmes from the initial 13. For the current session, we have admitted close to 700 students and the number is still ongoing. This is our development and expansion phases.
As regards the NOCN certificate, the National Open College Network, formerly known as the Open College Network, is a United Kingdom organisation developed to recognise informal learning achieved by adults.
The NOCN certificate is for our students to get additional skills with a certificate recognised by the UK government. And for students to graduate here, they must earn a minimum of two ICT certificates from the various ones we have which includes Oracle, Microsoft and others.
The main aim of the NOCN is mostly for artisans in this community and that is why you could not see any crack in this office building despite that it was handled by young men and women from this community, no Chinese or any expatriates.
We do practically everything ourselves and for us to take even our vehicle outside to the mechanic, it must be beyond us. So, those artisans don’t have any certifications if they want to emigrate outside the country but with NOCN, it is a changed story. As a degree awarding university, we partnered with the NOCN to issue UK government trade certification whether in carpentry or any skill.
Our engineering students also benefit from this highly valued arrangement. This year, we are starting a new programme, Basic Household Maintenance and every student must learn how to change faulty sockets, lamp holders, install and repair leaking sinks among others rather than looking for artisans. This will make them unique from other institutions because we are already preparing them for the life ahead.
Japa is a very common thing now and in addition to their degrees, they will get a certificate which will allow them to work over there. We have the MIT open course where our students take exams with students from that prestigious and highly- rated institution competing with students across the world and Africa. We have students from Tanzania, Zanzibar, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Algeria and other English speaking sub Saharan African countries. We just got a licence to host the Arabic and French version as well for students from non-English speaking countries to study here virtually.
Funding as major challenge
For us, the major challenge is funding. The founder was the one paying salaries before. It was when I came that I stopped it and we have been lucky to have people who want to work here despite its rural setting, which has helped us tremendously. In the whole of Kwara South, none of the universities offers medical programmes except Thomas Adewumi University (TAU). We need partnership and more committed people to build more hostels, staff accommodation and aid. We have won close to a $100,000 in grant since I came in addition to the $75,000 announced just recently.
Now that we have full operational licence unlike when it was operational, it means nothing will shut down this university by the grace of God and with access to attract more funding from other world bodies. In the next five years, I see TAU becoming the leading private university in Nigeria. Though this is quite ambitious, we have seen the trajectory and know we can achieve it just like we are doing with the ranking from 252 in Nigeria when I was appointed to 152 within a month and forty something now.
In Kwara, we have outranked Al-Hikmah and pushing to do the same with the Kwara State University (KWASU) and University of Ilorin. We can take that leadership position and we are confident that with the commitment of our founder, staff and corporation of the parents, we will get there in no distant time.
Our medicine will be highly sought after because we are going to do things differently. Our physiotherapy clinic which we built ourselves is the second largest in Kwara State.
We stand out for excellence in everything we do. We are a one- student university, every student gets attention for whatever it is. We don’t do half measures and are very committed. That is the difference.
