The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FUNAAB

  • ‘Schools can issue transcripts same day’

    The thorny issue of transcripts processing came to fore during the maiden lecture by the Registry unit of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), with the lecturer, Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo recommending an overhaul of the process.

    Speaking on the topic: “The Registry and its Place in the administration of higher institution”, Prof Banjo said it is possible for transcripts to be issued same day if registries of universities would speedily address requests by students.

    The former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan lamented that the tedious process of obtaining transcripts has often resulted in the loss of admission opportunities.

    “It ought to be possible for transcripts to be offered within 24 hours of application, and no one should have to appear personally to collect it,” he said.

    He said the Registry plays a crucial role in handling of students’ request and enquiries right from registration to the end of their studies. As such, the student’s first impression of the university is formed through their experience at the Registry during registration.

    Banjo expressed displeasure at current practice which makes it compulsory for former students, who urgently need their transcripts to be physically present to process them. When this happens, he said the love that such alumni should have for their alma mater are weakened, resulting in negative attitude to the institution.

    Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of FUNAAB’s Governing Council, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, also faulted the practice, describing it as unacceptable.

    He said most universities issue certificates to deserving students on graduation day, adding that ‘Statement of Result’ is not acceptable anymore.

    “If you treat the students as friends during the processing, they would want to come back to assist the university,” he said.

    Reiterating his administration’s commitment to the training of workers, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole, disclosed that the Registry Lecture Series is aimed at broadening the intellectual horizons of the workers to be more productive.

     

  • Overhauling transcript processing

    Overhauling transcript processing

    The problems of processing transcripts should belong to an old era. It should not be part of 21st century administration of tertiary institutions that desire to be respected the world over.

    With our institutions fighting for relevance on the international scene, there necessarily needs to be an overhaul of how they are run. Their managers need to start adopting best practices from the universities that are topping the world rankings.

    One area that needs complete overhaul is the way transcripts are processed. Our graduates have suffered unnecessary hardship trying to obtain their transcripts for further studies or employment after completing their programmes. Like Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo noted in a lecture he delivered at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abuja (FUNAAB), many have missed admission opportunities because of the lousy procedure involved.

    To obtain transcripts, the practice should be that the institution in need of it applies to the institution that produced the graduate. However, because most of our institutions have not evolved effective ways of managing these processes, that system does not work for many.

    Foreign and even local institutions instruct Nigerian graduates seeking admission to obtain the transcripts and mail to them. Such candidates have to travel to their alma-mater, most times having to obtain permission from their employers for several days Leave to attend to the matter. When they get to the institutions, they are made to follow a procedure that would require them to move from their departments to the exams and records unit, to the registry, and other places. Along the line, they have to grease several palms to facilitate the search, movement, transfer of the files containing their academic records to the appropriate officers for computing. Then when ready, a sealed document is meant to be mailed to the address of the institution that needs them. Today, many collect the transcript by hand, and of course, they open the envelope to see the document.

    If that is all that they need to do to get their transcripts, it would have been bearable. But it is not. Most times, there is a long waiting list for those applying for transcripts, so, those that follow the laid down procedure may as well wait indefinitely for their applications to be processed. The ‘smart’ ones find their way. They get the document out faster by influencing people they know to intervene or parting with some money. They are forced to deal with very unpleasant workers along the line who think processing the document is a favour they do for the graduates and not the jobs they are paid to do. This way of thinking is very wrong. Workers in our institutions should be made to do their jobs and not frustrate students. Some of them have become tin gods in their offices, threatening students with all manner of actions, or ignoring them completely as if they are irrelevant.

    Chukwuemeka Chukwudi is one person who can relate to the frustrations that result when the document is not issued on time. As a matter of fact, the 2003 graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) is yet to get his transcript since applying in 2010. He has been told his file is missing. Period! All efforts he has made for three years have proved abortive.

    If it were in other countries, whoever was responsible for misplacing his file would have been probed and disciplined. If he is not sacked, he would face disciplinary action. But it is not so in Nigeria.

    How can a student spend four years studying at an institution only to be told his entire academic records are missing and nothing can be done about it? Our students do not deserve to be treated so shabbily. It is time management of our tertiary institutions stipulate code of conduct for their workers and provide avenues for students to seek redress.

  • ‘We will help varsities produce world-class graduates’

    ‘We will help varsities produce world-class graduates’

    The Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, Prof Olusola Oyewole, was elected President of the Association of African Universities (AAU) for four years during its 13th General Conference in Libreville, Gabon, last Friday.  In this interview, he tells KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE how the association will help solve graduate unemployment 

    Why do you want to serve African universities?

    Within the past 10 years, apart from teaching in the university, I have been involved with high education issues in Africa. It will interest you to know that I have worked as a staff members of the Association of African Universities in Accra for about four years between 2006 and 2009. While there I coordinated the World Bank project on quality assurance for African universities and I have also moved from here to the African Union Commission in Ethiopia/Addis Ababa where I was the senior expert on higher education; so am familiar with universities. I have served in the university of agriculture Abeokuta for 28 years and now have been the vice chancellor for the past one year and one week.

    So, what are you hoping to do in these four years?

    One I am aware of the trend of things in higher education. In the past we have been producing graduates to service the one: the colonial masters, the civil servants who service but now the civil service is saturated. Our demand today is to produce graduates who will drive the development of Africa. We are in a knowledge economy were it is what you know that matters. It is not your oil, it is not your petroleum; it is what you can do with the knowledge that you know and our intention now is to ensure that graduates of today should have skills that can make them employable, skills that can make them to create jobs and skills that are relevant to our African development.

    How are you going to achieve this?

    We are going to deal with universities; we are going to deal with higher education institutions. We are going to educate or interact with the leaders that will drive activities in this university to know that there’s a need to have a paradigm shift in our curriculum. We can no longer continue with this theoretical curriculum that does not build up the human beings that can help our development. If we can modify or improve the curriculum to meet our needs as Africans then the graduates that will come out from there will help. We have also emphasized a value chain process whereby the input and the process is very important in the outcome. In terms of the input we know that the quality of primary school graduates who are admitted into secondary school reflects on the quality of our secondary school products and that translates to the university. Our intention is to promote total teacher development right away from the primary school to the university level, so that the quality of those who we now produce from the university will be great. We will promote dialogue among institutions. We will promote mobility of staff and students. We will promote opportunities to develop the leaders of our institution themselves and we also promote some capacity building programmes for institutions.

    So, there will be a lot of training for all these professors?

    Yes they will be training for them.

    So, by the time you are leaving office, where do you hope to see AAU?

    Well, by the time am leaving office, we would have got our universities to be committed to the quality of products that come out from them. I expect that graduates of African universities would be committed to Africa, issues about brain drain would have been reduced to the minimies.

    What is your take on the role of international agencies and how Africans should relate to them?

    I know that up till now, development agencies have been contributing to our development in the universities. It is time for our own government, our own people, to also see that they need to support development in the universities. I believe that there is a synergy; all of us should work together, indeed, a graduate of today should not see himself as a graduate of his or her own country. We are producing graduates for the world.

  • Council leadership hands over

    Council leadership hands over

    The immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Chief Lawrence Osayemi, has handed over to Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe. He expressed confidence that the new Council will take the university to greater heights.

    Osayemi, who visited the University with a former member of the Council, Dr. Solomon Oladiti, said his tenure was successful because of the quality of people that made up the council who cooperated to ensure things worked.

    “We employed diligence and discretion that were well-grounded in equity, fairness and justice in dealing with the complexity of unions’ intrigues and myriads of conflicting interests by staff, students and the community.

    This, without doubt, culminated in a large measure in the unprecedented growth, development and peace, in the annals of the University,” he said.

     

    Handing over documents that pertained to council activities, Osayemi urged his successor to surpass his achievements.

    Also speaking on the occasion, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole, described Osayemi as a dependable man.

     

  • Monarchs back varsity

    Monarchs back varsity

    Four of the five monarchs in Egbaland in Abeokuta, Ogun State have spoken in support of turning the FUNAAB into a conventional university, where Medicine, Law, Education and other courses.

    They spoke when members of the new Governing Council led by Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe visited them.

    They are: The Osile of Oke-Ona, Egba, Oba Adedapo Adewale Tejuoso; The Agura of Gbagura, Oba Halidu Adedayo Laloko; The Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Oba (Dr.) Olusanya Adegboyega Dosunmu; and the Olubara of Ibara, Oba Jacob Olufemi Omolade.

    While Oba Tejuoso said said the new Federal Medical Centre (FMC), at Idi-Aba, would make a Medical School a reality, Oba Laloko said with Gbagura owning 95 per cent of the university’s land, he would be happy to support an expansion.

    Oba Dosunmu noted that conventional status would enable the university to admit more students, while Oba Omolade, affirmed the Yoruba people’s appreciation of good education.

    All the monarchs expressed their confidence that the new Council would achieve even greater heights than the past Councils because its experienced and highly intelligent members.

    The Pro-Chancellor said the visit was to solicit the support of the monarchs and their people to contribute to FUNAAB’s growth.

  • Online quiz earns FUNAAB student surprise prize

    Miss Ireyimika Oyagbami, a postgraduate student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Alabata, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), on Monday received a Samsung Galaxy SIII for emerging winner of the February edition of a monthly quiz organised by an online news portal, Flair Nigeria.

    Receiving her prize at Flair Nigeria’s office in Lagos, Ireyimika, whose discipline is Environmental Management and Protection, said her victory at the contest was sheer luck.

    “I only ‘liked’ the Flair Nigeria page on Facebook by accident. It was a mistake. I didn’t plan it,” she said.

    “In fact, I even ignored the questions when I saw them on the Flair Nigeria website. I continued overlooking it until a friend said they were cheap questions. That was when I took a second look, and then decided to answer them. Thereafter, I forwarded it to my sister to apply, too.”

    The published writer then forgot about the entry, thinking it was a hoax.

    “I didn’t open my email box for a week. When I did, the last message I expected to see was a mail or anything else from Flair Nigeria.

    “When I eventually saw it, I was in school that day, and I just went all over the department, shouting and hugging everybody. I told everyone who cared enough to listen that I had won a Samsung Galaxy SIII.”

    Clutching the mobile device with excitement, the winner of Heinrich Boll Foundation’s 2011 national writing contest promised to announce the authenticity of the contest to everyone around her.

    “I will go back to school to show this phone to everyone I told about the win,” she added. “Believe me, I will be visiting Flair Nigeria’s website every day to see if I can answer the quiz every month.”