With the government’s directive to specialised universities to axe conventional courses, the boost in admission enjoyed by universities of agriculture and technology because of the introduction of conventional programmes may soon end. Affected universities are not happy about the directive.
When registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) finally begins, candidates should not expect to find courses like Accounting, Business Administration, Banking Engineering, Economics, and the like on the list of programmes offered by specialised universities in the country.
This is because of a directive issued last month by the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) should delete conventional programmes listed by specialised institutions from their portals.
A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, warned candidates that such courses if offered by “universities of agriculture, universities of technologies and universities of medicine, amongst others” were illegal.
The statement reads in part: “Government notes the unfortunate situation were Universities of Agriculture offer programmes in Law, Management courses such as Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Administration, among others. As if that was not enough, some institutions change the nomenclature of some of the courses to read – for instance – Banking Engineering, Accounting Technology, among other names. This is an aberration and should be stopped with immediate effect.”
Ironically, these universities started offering conventional courses following a directive during the tenure of Prof Ruqayyat Ahmed Rufa’i, as minister of education (2010-2013). The reason was to increase the chances of admission for eligible candidates who might have been denied because of space constraint.
Following the nod from the former minister, institutions like the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM), and others introduced management courses in their list of programmes.
Five years ago, FUNAAB established a College of Management Sciences (COLMAS) to run such programmes like Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Administration, Entrepreneurial Studies, and Economics. Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Olusola Oyewole, said the college recorded the highest number of applications for admission for the 2016/2017 academic session – with 10,500 candidates applying for COLMAS programmes out of the total of 17,434 applications received by the university.
Two years ago, FUTA began offering Accounting, Economics and Business Administration under its School of Management Technology. Its first post-UTME screening to select pioneer students for the three programmes was oversubscribed such that the university pegged its pass mark at 70 per cent.
However, with the current minister frowning at the practice of specialised universities offering programmes outside their areas, the future of the programmes in these universities seems uncertain.
When approached for comments, both FUTA and FUTMINNA claimed not to have received official communication regarding the minister’s directive.
However, while inaugurating some furniture donated by students recently, the FUNAAB VC justified the establishment of the college. Oyewole, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof Oluyemisi Eromosele, urged the students, teachers and other stakeholders not to panic, saying the university was yet to receive any official directive from the government to suspend programmes run by the college. He assured them that the students would complete their programmes, including those admitted for the 2016/2017 academic session, who should graduate by 2022.
Speaking in personal capacity as she was not authorised to make official comments on the matter, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Mrs Oluyemisi Eronmosele, told our reporter that the university would take no action on the matter since there was no directive from the Federal Ministry of Education. She added that she personally contacted JAMB for clarification on the matter but got no response.
Mrs Emi Alawode, Head, Directorate of Public Relations of the university, said COLMAS has produced two sets of graduates.
“For our College of Management Sciences, our second set of graduands, only recently, concluded their final examinations, which the University Senate would soon deliberate upon, before their participation in the National Youth Service programme,” she said.
When contacted, FUTA’s Head, Information and Protocol Unit, Mr Adegbenro Adebanjo, also said the university had received no official directive to stop its management programme.
“There has been no official communication to the university from JAMB so there is nothing to act on,” he said.
Nevertheless, Dean of Students’ Affairs of the university, Prof Kayode Alese, speaking in personal capacity, said specialised universities should be able to run management programmes relating to technology. He said such programmes are relevant to the economy.
“My personal take is that there are some courses that you think don’t belong to specialised universities but they are relevant to technology and the economy. A course like accounting has a technological aspect.
“I believe management courses are still relevant in universities of technology. However, I don’t expect universities of technology to be involved in art-related courses like Linguistics or Law,” he said.
Untill 2009, the UAM offered only agriculture-related science programmes. In 2010, all that changed as the school authorities under the then Vice Chancellor, Prof Vershima Uza introduced a Sandwhich school which offered some conventional programmes.
In that year over 5,000 students were registered. As the years passed, the number increased to 10,000 – far above the regular students .
The school authorities had to contend with the problem of hostel and accommodation for the students.
At first the Sandwhich programme was structured to run while regular were on holidays. However, industries disharmony in the universities occasioned by strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions rendered this arrangement ineffective.
As a result, both regular and sandwich students became permanent features on campus – competing for limited classrooms and hostel accommodations, and worse still, lecturers.
Even though UAM sought and got classroom accommodation from other schools, it was difficult for the same lecturers to teach the two categories of students.
When The Nation visited UAM to get the university’s comments on the new directive, many of the principal officers feigned ignorance and refused to speak on the matter.
Despite reservations expressed by the affected universities, the government has said it would implement the directive. An official in the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja, who craved anonymity told our reporter that the Federal Government decided to stop the universities from running the courses because they had deviated from their mandates. He described the government’s decision as long overdue.
The official however said all the students currently running the conventional courses in any of the institutions would be allowed to finish. He added that with this directive, no new candidate would be admitted to study any of these management courses in any of these universities.
On its part, the National Universities Commission (NUC) said it would enforce the directive as handed down by Mallam Adamu. Its Director of Information and Public Relations, Mallam Ibrahim Yakassai, told our reporter that the NUC would ensure that the universities do not run programmes they were not established for in the first place.
He said the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, had at several public functions, warned specialised universities to stick to their original mandate.
The NUC spokesperson said: “The minister spoke and I can tell you that even before he spoke the ES (of) NUC has spoken at several public functions that specialised universities should stick to their mandate.
“Nobody asked them to make investment outside what they were mandated to do as specialised universities. They were created for a purpose so if they veered off and started spending money on programmes they were not allowed to run, that is their problem not government’s.
“Government has given them directives to hold on to the original reason why they were established. Rukayatu did not direct any university and even if she did, the visitor to the university is the president and he has given directive that they should go back to their original mandate, the mandate for which they were created.
“The NUC has been given a clear directive to make sure those universities go back to their original mandate and that is what the NUC will carry out.”
Yakassai also said the NUC would soon start an audit of the programmes of the universities to learn the kinds of courses they offer.
“There will be no new admission and we will soon start auditing their programmes and make sure that only those ones that are commensurate with their mandate are allowed to continue,” he added.
Responding to the directive, JAMB registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said the decision would bring sanity to the system.
Oloyede, in a telephone interview with our reporter, denied that Prof Ahmed Rufai encouraged the specialised universities to run conventional courses.
He said: “I am not aware that Rukayyat Ahmed encouraged them. Government is consistent about its policies. Government is saying that universities should have their mandates and they should stick within the mandate. So anybody who said Prof. Rukayyat encouraged them will not be telling you the truth. I think it is just part of our lawlessness and the government has come out fervently.
“We already have enough universities for the management courses. It is a government decision and I also believe it is a correct decision. It is a right decision to have sanity in the system.”
The Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) has nothing to worry about because its programmes align with its mandate.
Its Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Okoro Ogbobe, said the university started a conventional course, Philosophy of Science, five years ago, which it scrapped only after two years to keep within its mandate.
He said that other courses offered by the university such asPhysics, Chemistry and Biology are all specialised because technology is attached to the courses and are run for five years instead of four years as obtained in other universities.
“We don’t offer conventional courses. The ones we have have technology attached to them, like the School of Environmental Sciences and Technology. So it is the technology that is attached to it that makes it specialised. Some courses like Chemistry, Physics and Biology in other universities are run for four years that makes the difference,” he said.
Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT Minna), Prof Musbau Akanji, also said that the university never strayed from its mandate to offer any course not technology-related.
“The Universities of Technology were established mainly to advance technological advancement but most specialised universities derailed and started introducing conventional courses. The deletion of courses will not affect us at FUT Minna because we are not doing any course that is outside our mandate,” he said.
He applauded the Federal Government’s directive but advised that the reason why specialised universities started offering conventional courses should be addressed so that the institutions do not suffer.
“The direftive is perfect. Government has taken the right step but they should address what is causing specialised universities to offer conventional courses. Most of it is funding. There is more Internally Generated Revenue in Humanities and management courses than in science and technology. About 60 per cent of students writing JAMB go for conventional courses.
“If there are fewer admissions in specialised universities, it means no Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR). Government has done the correct thing but they should match it with increased assistance to specialised universities,” Akanji noted.
