The Nation Newspaper

Tag: VCs

  • Lack of accommodation in universities worries VCs

    The Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) has expressed worries on the availability of bed spaces in Nigerian universities.

    AVCNU chairman, Prof. Debo Adeyewa, expressed the worries at a high-level policy dialogue on affordable housing in Nigerian universities in Abuja.

    Represented by Prof. Decent Sheni, Adeyewa said VCs are uncomfortable with reports that no Nigerian university is capable of providing accommodation for 40 percent of its students.

    He said the development has left the students with the option of sourcing accommodation outside the school.

    This, Adeyewa said, has exposed the students to social vices such as kidnapping, drug abuse, prostitution and gang rape.

    He said: “Even though we have not been able to generate enough fund to address the accommodation issue in our universities, the gathering of experts is expected to provide solution to shortage of accommodation in Nigerian universities.

    “We are seriously concerned with the negative effect of insufficient accommodation in our institutions. It has forced students to resort to squatting, overstretch the existing facilities and high maintenance cost.”

    In his remarks, AVCNU Secretary General, Prof. Michael Faborode, agreed that housing problems had affected the academic performance of students particularly in government owned universities.

  • JAMB, VCs peg varsity entry cut-off mark at 120

    JAMB, VCs peg varsity entry cut-off mark at 120

    THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, in collaboration with vice chancellors, rectors and provosts of higher institutions, yesterday pegged the minimum cut-off mark for admission into universities at 120.

    They also approved 100 as the minimum cut-off mark for admissions into polytechnics.

    No higher institution is expected to go below these minimum cut-off marks.

    The board and the heads of higher institutions unanimously reached the decision at a combined policy meeting on admissions in Abuja.

    The cut-off marks are against the 180 approved during the same policy meeting for last year.

    The stakeholders agreed that admission into first choice universities should close on October 15 and December 15 was set as the deadline for second choice admission by institutions.

    JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede said universities, with this decision, should not go below the approved minimum 120  cut-off point.

    Oloyede called for the adoption of flexible cut-off marks for admission by higher institutions.

    He said: “What JAMB has done is to recommend. We will only determine the minimum, whatever you determine as your admission cut-off mark is your decision.

    “The Senate and academic boards of universities should be allowed to determine their cut-off marks.

    Prof. Oloyede, who said the board discovered over 17,160 illegally admitted students by higher institutions, added that the agency has regularised some of them.

    “Thirty per cent of those in higher institutions do not take jamb or have less than the cut-off marks.

    “The admission process is now automated with direct involvement of the registrar of JAMB for final approval.

    “We have agreed to regularise admissions that were done under the table this year. From next year, we will not accept anything like that,” he added.

    Minister of Education Adamu Adamu admitted that the Federal Government’s ban on examinations usually organised by universities for admission seekers after the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) as a mistake.

    The minister said the government banned the conduct of post-UTME because the examination had become an avenue for corruption in some higher institutions.

    Malam Adamu, who encouraged higher institutions to conduct aptitude tests for candidates seeking admission, pegged the fee for the test at N2000.

    He said: “I must restate this administration’s zero tolerance for corruption and zero tolerance for exploitation. Because in line with this and with the best intention that I announced the cancellation of the conduct of post UTME las year.

    “At that time, it had become an avenue for exploitation and it was a burden for many parents. However, following that cancellation, some institutions resulted in using SSCE and this led to faking and falsification of results and the inflation of grades and this led to reconsideration of the exercise.”

  • VCs in trouble for taking N5.7m furniture allowance

    VCs in trouble for taking N5.7m furniture allowance

    EFCC launches probe

    Vice-Chancellors of some Federal universities collected over N480, 000 as furniture allowance monthly, National Universities Commission (NUC) chief  Abubakar Rasheed has said.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is probing financial irregularities levelled against some of the Vice Chancellors and Bursars of federal universities.

    Prof. Rasheed broke the news at a workshop on economic recovery and growth for bursars of Federal universities yesterday in Abuja.

    He accused some of the VCs of financial irregularities, flouting financial regulations and non-compliance with university regulations, especially extant federal circulars emanating from government agencies.

    Rasheed spoke of a large disparity in the university system’s salary scale. He alleged that some VCs were living big in terms of salary and allowances, adding that some receive above a million while others receive less.

    According to him, many universities allow their VCs to collect about N480,000 furniture allowance and N90,000 Duty Tour Allowance when top civil servants in the Education ministry collect about N20,000 as Duty Tour Allowance.

    Acting EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu has fixed a meeting with bursars and the VCs who are under the agency’s investigation for this week.

    Rasheed said: “There are many areas where you have to put your heads together. We have a lot of problems and you know them. If we may ask you as bursars in federal universities, what salaries do you pay your Vice-Chancellors? You will see that there may be as many salaries as there are many universities here. And this is one of the sources of crises.

    ”If all the 40 federal universities pay one single salary to all the VCs, that problem will have been resolved. This is why many of the university people are being taken to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    ”The EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, is coming to my office this week to pay a courtesy visit. He wants me to even arrange a meeting with the VCs and bursars. The EFCC is investigating so many universities as you are aware. One of the areas being investigated by the EFCC is the Furniture Allowance.

    ”Many universities fail to interpret what we mean by the Furniture Allowance. Common sense tells us that the government will never allocate N5.77m as furniture allowance to the VC. Yet many bursars in many universities allow vice chancellors to take N480, 000 monthly as furniture allowance and you know it is wrong.

    ”This is why whenever the EFCC comes, there is crisis, and the VCs and the bursars are the easy targets. This interaction is to address these issues.”

    The NUC boss also said the federal government would not grant full autonomy to public universities.

    He explained that in view of the fact that public universities rely on government subventions to operate, granting them autonomy would be tantamount to throwing away its regulatory rights, especially checking financial excesses in the institutions.

    This position may pitch the NUC against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has always included right to full autonomy in demands put before government over the years.

    The NUC Executive Secretary accused most universities management of not being proactive in sourcing for funds locally, adding that: “rather they wait on government for grants, yet claim that they can regulate themselves”.

    ”There is no way government can totally grant autonomy to universities when all their funding comes from government source. Most of the universities can hardly generate enough funds for themselves, so you don’t expect government to give you money and don’t have a say on how such monies would be used,” Rasheed said.

     

  • Sack of FUNAAB, FUTA VCs faulted

    The Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) yesterday faulted the Federal Government on the suspension of the vice chancellors of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) and Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Prof. Olusola Oyewole and Prof. Adebiyi Daramola.

    Their suspension was conveyed in a May 8 letter signed by the acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Hussaini Adamu, over allegations of corruption.

    AVCNU, in a statement yesterday in Abuja by its Secretary-General, Prof. Michael Faborode, said it was surprised that Minister of Education Adamu Adamu would go ahead to suspend both VCs when the governing councils of universities had been inaugurated by him.

    It hailed the governing councils of both universities for upholding the sacred tenets of the university system.

    The statement said: “It was, therefore, surprising to AVCNU that the honourable minister would proceed to suspend some VCs just when new councils were being inaugurated for the universities.

    “The resolution of lingering issues should just have been left in the hands of the new councils, who would have been admonished to, as a matter of urgency, assume their mandate, like the new French President, and bring their institutions to pursue that which will edify and endear them to the nation.

    “It is against this background that the actions of the councils of FUNAAB and FUTA in upholding the sacred tenets of the university system, nay its autonomy, is commendable and is thus applauded by the AVCNU.

    “What the councils of FUNAAB and FUTA have done is to, without any iota of hesitation, halt the descent of the institutions to unbelievable anarchy, signal a new order of proactive engagement, built on deep understanding of what a university should be and hence laid the basis for sustainable peace in contrast to the theatre of the absurd and confusion that had engulfed the institutions in the recent past, that seemed to last eternity.

    “By their prompt and decisive intervention, they have restored the glory of the Nigerian university system in the comity of global universities. AVCNU salutes their courage in the face of heinous intimidation and primitive blackmail, clothed in the garb of critical radicalism.

    “They have proved that they are equal to the task with which they are saddled. If we and our universities must emerge from our current level of obscurity in the global peer ranking of universities, then we and our proprietors (federal and state governments, private individuals and faith based organisations who own the universities) must ponder on the imperatives of attaining the lofty attributes of world-class universities.

    “It is the contention of AVCNU that the time has come for us to get Nigerian universities back on track, and we plead with the university unions not to unwittingly destroy the fabric of our universities, which indeed is their means of livelihood. “

  • Varsities can screen, say VCs

    The Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) has chided the Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu for not consulting widely with stakeholders before banning the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

    Its Secretary-General, Prof Michael Faborode, said the minister’s pronouncement did not take away a university’s right to select its students as the law empowers its Senate to screen applicants before admission.

    Faborode was the guest speaker at the 11th convocation lecture of Covenant University (CU) Ota, Ogun State.  He spoke on: “Benchmarking the quality and relevance of Higher Education for National Development” at the CU chapel last Thursday.

    He said: “AVCNU does not feel that we should make a public pronouncement (on the minister’s directive). Remember, when the minister made that, he also said there would be clarification on how the screening would be done.

    “But for us, the issue is very clear. Remember, Post-UTME came out of necessity because at the time, the level of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam was seriously questioned. It is true that things have improved to some extent; but I feel it (minister’s decision) should have been more consultative and we would have conducted studies to verify the present situation like we did when we started post-UTME.

    “But why we feel there was no need for outcry is that the fundamental right of universities to conduct screening cannot be taken away. The Senate of every university must screen whoever comes into the university and must guarantee the quality of certificate they are awarding. These are fundamental tasks that still remain and have not been threatened.”

    Speaking on how universities in Africa can up their ranking globally, Faborode, a former vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife (OAU), urged them to collaborate.

    “The time has come for African universities to create global academy of commons – a global community of scholars, who although responsive to the local and national needs of our society, nevertheless transcend national polities to practise a ‘science’ that produces collective knowledge for the human community.

    “Such a system would allow our universities to develop to imbibe the corpus of scientific knowledge, apply it to our context, re-imagine and innovate it, and contribute it back to the global economy. It will also allow us to produce graduates who are simultaneously African; citizens of both nation and the world.”

    Faborode who also lamented that underfunding has been a major factor for stunted growth of universities in Africa, called authorities to up their investment at the tertiary level.

    “To bridge the knowledge gap and close the global development, Nigeria especially, must increase the level of their investment in funding higher education, as well as embrace bold initiative for diversified funding by other stakeholders.

    “One of such is to mobilise resources from the private financial sector with government collateral support and loans. A necessary corollary is the adequate provision of scholarship and bursaries to brilliant and indigent students to remove inequity. The universities too need to accentuate their internal revenue generation through entrepreneurial and commercial engagement, applied research output, endowment and philanthropy etc.”

  • Varsities can screen, say VCs

    The Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) has chided the Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu for not consulting widely with stakeholders before banning the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

    Its Secretary-General, Prof Michael Faborode, said the minister’s pronouncement did not take away a university’s right to select its students as the law empowers its Senate to screen applicants before admission.

    Faborode was the guest speaker at the 11th convocation lecture of Covenant University (CU) Ota, Ogun State.  He spoke on: “Benchmarking the quality and relevance of Higher Education for National Development” at the CU chapel last Thursday.

    He said: “AVCNU does not feel that we should make a public pronouncement (on the minister’s directive). Remember, when the minister made that, he also said there would be clarification on how the screening would be done.

    “But for us, the issue is very clear. Remember, Post-UTME came out of necessity because at the time, the level of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam was seriously questioned. It is true that things have improved to some extent; but I feel it (minister’s decision) should have been more consultative and we would have conducted studies to verify the present situation like we did when we started post-UTME.

    “But why we feel there was no need for outcry is that the fundamental right of universities to conduct screening cannot be taken away. The Senate of every university must screen whoever comes into the university and must guarantee the quality of certificate they are awarding. These are fundamental tasks that still remain and have not been threatened.”

    Speaking on how universities in Africa can up their ranking globally, Faborode, a former vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife (OAU), urged them to collaborate.

    “The time has come for African universities to create global academy of commons – a global community of scholars, who although responsive to the local and national needs of our society, nevertheless transcend national polities to practice a ‘science’ that produces collective knowledge for the human community.

    “Such a system would allow our universities to develop to imbibe the corpus of scientific knowledge, apply it to our context, re-imagine and innovate it, and contribute it back to the global economy. It will also allow us to produce graduates who are simultaneously African; citizens of both nation and the world.”

    Faborode who also lamented that underfunding has been a major factor for stunted growth of universities in Africa, called authorities to up their investment at the tertiary level.

    “To bridge the knowledge gap and close the global development, Nigeria especially, must increase the level of their investment in funding higher education, as well as embrace bold initiative for diversified funding by other stakeholders.

    “One of such is to mobilise resources from the private financial sector with government collateral support and loans. A necessary corollary is the adequate provision of scholarship and bursaries to brilliant and indigent students to remove inequity. The universities too need to accentuate their internal revenue generation through entrepreneurial and commercial engagement, applied research output, endowment and philanthropy etc.”

  • Varsity autonomy and appointment of VCs

    Since 2009 when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), won the battle for the university autonomy which gave the governing councils of Federal Universities power to appoint their vice chancellors, there has been restiveness on many campuses each time a vice chancellor is to be appointed.  The reason for all this is the politics that surrounds the choice of would-be vice chancellors. Apart from this, the perquisites of office are one major attraction to the highest office in the ivory tower in Nigeria. A vice chancellor earns as much as N1.8million per month. This is aside from the comfort that comes with the appointment while his professor colleagues in the departments earn less than N500, 000.00 per month. The thinking is that most professors’ interest in the office of the vice chancellor is driven primarily bythe lucre of office, all other considerations are secondary.

    The university autonomy as has been canvassed by members of the university communities will enable each university to handle the process of choosing its vice chancellor without government interference which to a rational mind is good for university administration. Part of the argument in favour of university autonomy is that staff members of the universities know who among them is capable of leading the system without trouble as they must have a working knowledge of such a system. And it took the federal government a lot of time before conceding this role to the university with the hope that it will work out well.

    But recent events at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife have proved otherwise. The process of appointing its vice chancellor has put a section of the workforce against the administration of the university. Specifically NASU and SSANU have kicked against the selection process that produced one of the deputy vice chancellors as successor to the incumbent. Their grouse is that the process was skewed in favour of the newly appointed vice chancellor. Among other issues, they argued that the governing council of the university did not follow due process as some statutory requirements of the university were not followed. The unions went to court to seek redress and the case was yet to be heard when the appointment was made. And since then, both academic and administrative activities have been paralysed on the campus while the union members are asking for the head of the incumbent vice chancellor.

    Many people have asked questions for the rationale to give autonomy to institutions that are funded by the government, especially the power given to the universities to appoint their vice chancellors. These are universities that depend on monetary allocation from the government on monthly basis but do not allow the government to be part of selecting who manages those resources allocated to them. What then is the meaning of political autonomy without economic autonomy? If these universities are able to stand on their own in economic terms, probably the political autonomy will make sense but in this situation where an investor has no say in who manages his investment is an irony of circumstance. This can only happen when the government lacks the will power to say no to the political brinksmanship of the academics.

    On the face value, there may not be anything wrong with university autonomy, provided the modus of operandi conforms to the rule. But is this feasible in our present society where corruption, especially moral corruption has become the order of the day? Everywhere you turn, there is corruption that one thinks that what drives the society is the pervasive corrupt practices. The university autonomy as a means of freeing the system from red-tapism and bigotry has been entrapped by the corruption in the system.

    Unfortunately, ASUU that fought and got the autonomy did not put any check and balance in place for the process of the selection of a vice chancellor. The governing council exercises enormous power in this process. It selects candidates, conducts the interview and declares the winner. There is no other organ of the university that has a say in the process. Possibly ASUU never envisaged a situation in which the power of autonomy could be used to feather some selfish interests. The university autonomy is good in intent but its practicability is fraught with human idiosyncrasies which make it possible for people to do whatever they like and go scot free.

    More worrisome is that a system that gives enormous power to a group without checks also encourages acerbic criticism from other members of the community. This is exactly what has happened at ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile- Ife, where members of staff have accused their governing council of the abuse of power of autonomy in the appointment of the new vice chancellor. They fault the process and blame the governing council for favouring one candidate over and above the others. They vowed not to allow the new vice chancellor to occupy the office; the incumbent vice chancellor who has some days in office has also been prevented from performing his official functions. It is like heaven broken loose on campus for two weeks running and there is no end in sight.

    To make matters worse, the government that funds the university has not done anything toward solving this problem as if the university is not part of its holdings. A proactive government would have nipped the problem in the bud by asking questions to arrive at a solution that will return normalcy to the system. What is happening in ObafemiAwolowo University provides a litmus test for the government to reconsider the university autonomy to appoint their vice chancellors. It shows that academics, like organisations in Nigeria cannot as of now manage the process of appointing who becomes the vice chancellor of their institutions.

     

    • Oripeloye is of the Department of English, ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife.

     

  • Minister urged to recall sacked VCs

    A group, Concerned Citizens for Educational Development (CCED), has urged Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to comply with the presidential directive to recall the 13 vice chancellors whose appointments were terminated in February.

    In a statement in Abuja, the nation’s capital, by its National Coordinator Solomon Adodo, CCED expressed concerns that despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s public apology for the wrongful dissolution of the governing boards of the affected universities, the directive that the affect VCs be recalled had not been complied with.

    The statement said: “We are dismayed and befuddled that the Minister of Education has chosen to misinterpret Mr. President’s statement and turn a deaf ear to the directive that the imbroglio of sack/removal and replacement/appointment be reversed. This is quite unhealthy for our educational system and the apparatchik of governance as a whole.”

    It added: “Mallam Adamu Adamu has unwittingly usurped the powers of the visitor to all Federal universities by his tacit refusal to reverse his missteps. To this extent, the minister must be called to order and compelled to do things in the right manner to wit: recalling the sacked vice chancellors since he also made the decision unilaterally.”

    The group said most of the affected vice chancellors etched their names in gold as heroes of democracy while serving as Returning Officers in last year’s general elections.

  • Protests over sacked VCs in Abuja

    Coalition of civil society groups yesterday shut down the entrance of the National Assembly and Ministry of Education in Abuja in protest against the sack of 13 vice chancellors by the Federal Government.

    The protesters barricaded the entrance to the Federal Ministry of Education.

    The civil rights organisation described the sack as illegal.

    The protest left commuters and workers stranded for hours in the traffic.

    Addressing reporters, the coalition Chairman, Bassey Etuk, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, of his appointment “because he knows nothing”.

    He said their sack and replacement by people mostly from the North violated the Federal Character principle.

    One of the placards  read: “Six professors were taken from Bayero University, Kano… Haba! Why?”

    The protesters also petitioned Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara.

    The group gave the minister 48 hours to reverse the sack and resign his appointment.

  • Dignitaries grace VC’s public lecture

    Dignitaries stormed Oodua auditorium of the Ekiti State University, (EKSU) Ado -Ekiti , for the first Professor Oladipo Aina public lecture to mark the International Peace Day. It was organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Peace Building and Human Development Centre, and the Rotary Club of Ado Ekiti.

    President of the NGO and the Club, Ayo Olowoyeye, said the decision to have the lecture in honour of Aina, who is also the EKSU vice chancellor, was in recognition of his achievements in the past five years. The theme of this year’s International day of Peace was “Partnership for peace, dignity for all.”

    Delivering the lecture, the former Registrar of EKSU Dr. Omojola Awosusi, praised Aina for running an open administration. He enumerated the types of industrial actions, as well as causes of strikes in universities while also deliberating on the legality or otherwise of strikes.