Professor Ignatius I. Uvah, PhD (Cantab) Agricultural, Management & Educational Consultant Maitama,...

Academic Planning and Orderly Development of the 21st

Century Nigerian University

Professor Ignatius I. Uvah, PhD (Cantab)

Agricultural, Management & Educational Consultant

Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria

2012 CODAPNU Annual Conf., Abuja 2

Outline of the presentation:

Introduction: Conceptual considerations; Evolution of university education in Nigeria

Challenges for 21st Century Nigerian Universities: National; Institutional

What is being done now What more to do Role of Academic Planning Conclusion

Summary


Definitions:

University: An institution for post-secondary studies and training

usually leading to the award of degrees; diplomas and certificates;

A place of education at the highest level, where degrees are given (Longmans Dictionary);

“an academic institution … for the award of degrees and other academic qualifications” NUC (1997)

Conceptual Considerations: What is a University?


Definitions cont’d: Academic Planning:

“An interaction process in which institutional and academic unit goals, and the means for achieving goals are negotiated between faculty, administrators, students and other parties within and outside the university. Thus academic planning integrates concepts and activities from academic programme review, budgetary planning, and academic administration” - Larry R Jones; Univ. of British Colombia

“Academic planning occurs anytime a decision (is made) about what academic programs, degrees or research the institution will support ” – Society for College and University Planning, USA

Conceptual Considerations: What is Academic Planning?


Definitions cont’d:

Academic Planning: “Academic Planning examines the importance of building a

college or university academic plan alongside the institution's strategic plan” – Daniel James Rowley and Herbert Sherman

“The desirability of academic planning has increased; however, the meaning of academic planning remains imprecise” – Bruce Fuller, California Assembly

Academic Planning is the front end of Management; i.e. Planning is an integral part of management

Conceptual Considerations: Academic Planning cont’d

62012 CODAPNU Annual Conf., Abuja

Evolution of University Education in Nigeria 1

Federal Universities: University education in Nigeria started with

establishment of the University College, Ibadan in 1948 following the Elliot Commission recommendation of 1945.

Subsequently, the University of Nigeria was established in 1960.

In 1962, the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife and University of Lagos were established. - 5



Federal Universities: University of Benin was then established in 1970. In 1975, the seven second generation universities

were established at Jos, Calabar, PortHarcourt, Sokoto, Ilorin and Kano. - 13.

During the 1980s, the FGN converted its military training school (the NDA) to a University.

In 1980, the FGN established seven universities of Technology at Abeokuta, Makurdi, Akure, Bauchi, Owerri Minna and Yola. The first two were converted to universities of Agriculture in1985.



Federal Universities: University of Abuja was established in 1988. In the early 1990s, the Federal Government took

over the state universities at Awka and Uyo and converted them to Federal universities.



Federal Universities cont’d:

Later in 2007, FGN established Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE) at Effurun.

Recently, the FGN established nine more universities at Lokoja, Dutsin-Ma, Lafia, Dutse, Kashere, Wukari, Ndufu-Alike, Oye-Ekiti and Otuoke.

The FGN, about two months ago, converted the Police College at Wudil to a university.

Thus there are 37 Federal universities as at now. Federal universities are often categorised by age

into 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation institutions.



State Universities The 1979 Constitution placed education on the

concurrent legislative list. States could therefore create universities

In 1980, the first state university, RSUST, was established at Portharcourt

Subsequently, more state universities were established during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Nigeria now has 37 state universities.



Private Universities The promulgation of Decree (now Act) 9 of

1993 made provision for the establishment of private Universities.

50 private universities have to date been issued licenses to operate.

Total Number of Nigerian Universities Consequently, there is a total of 118 approved

Universities in Nigeria. In addition, there are 4 Inter-University

Centres


Why Plan (in the context of universities)?

To ensure orderly development of individual universities and the university system; and

To ensure achievement of national and institutional objectives.

What are the challenges to orderly development of the universities?

Purpose of Planning


National Challenges for universities:

Access: Carrying capacity (system-wide), Admission quota Enrolments

Funding: Core provision (by proprietor) Reward structure; Quality & Relevance – Policy constraints;

Curriculum Environment & others – Aids; Globalisation.

National Challenges


Institutional Challenges for

universities: Funding: IGR; Carrying capacity: Student enrolment, Teachers, TSR,

admission quota; and Infrastructure and facilities: Academic spaces; Municipal facilities; Learning resources; and ICT;

Governance – Leadership & tensions; Planning; Conditions of Service & Brain drain; accountability; Campus vices; Maintenance culture

Quality & Relevance – Programs and Curriculum; Environment & others – Aids, ICT, Community

relations.

Institutional Challenges

Objective of Government is to provide adequate

access to university education for those who desire it; as a vehicle for socio-economic transformation;

Although degree student enrolment in the Nigerian university system, which in 1948 was 104, is now well over 950,000, the system has been unable to cope with the demand for university education.


Access

Trends


Funding for Federal Universities

YEAR

AMOUNT RECEIVED (N)

Recurrent Capital

2004 41,840,735,050 9,462,455,178

2005 47,290,489,886 9,397,660,000

2006 73,161,996,247 5,760,105,402

2007 78,482,540,961 7,184,637,934

2008 94,552,983,73313,197,505,486

2009 103,008,978,4229,995,998,748

2010 163,729,239,32520,429,524,4222011 167,667,580,57415,956,588,967


2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Recurrent allocationCapital allocation

17

Funding for Federal Universities(₦billions)

Current challenges: Funding:

Federal Government provides a budget cap (envelope) based on projected earnings and not on the needs of the universities;

Federal universities are not allowed to charge tuition fees;

States often spread finances for their universities thin over multi-campus systems;

Consequently, many universities have budget provisions well below their needs.


Funding Issues

Student enrolment:

Over 950,000 degree students currently are enrolled.

Teachers: Over 36,000 academics in Nigerian Universities

currentlyTeacher/student Ratios: The composite TSR

of 26.4 is high and yet is not reflective of the atrocious STRs for some programmes at many of the universities.

Divided attention: Frequently, each academic staff teaches at three or more universities


Carrying Capacity

Infrastructure and Facilities: Inadequate classroom, lecture theatre, library,

laboratory, workshop and studio spaces; poor electricity and water supply; poor telecommunications and ICT

Inadequate equipment; often insufficient; and sometimes obsolete

Tendency to enroll more students than infrastructure and facilities can support.

Learning Resources: Dearth of Books and Journals; Lack of, or poor

access to Internet resources2012 CODAPNU Annual Conf., Abuja 20

Infrastructure and other Facilities

Governance:Succession is often acrimonious, rancorous

& disorderly;Frequent cases of tension among ManagersPoor management practices: Delegation; Finances

Poor planning; often no strategic plan; expired academic and physical plans

Poor Conditions of Service; thus Brain drain


Governance 1

Governance: Impunity: Indiscipline and Campus vices:

Admission racketeering, exam malpractice, marks-for-sale deals (sorting), plagiarism, sexual harassment, extortion through handouts; cultism, etc. often go unpunished

Staff truancy: Some academics give 2-3 lectures only for a 15-week semester & cover only a small fraction of the curriculum

Culture of inefficiency: Student registration; Transcripts


Governance 2

Governance:

Reward Structure: Uniform wage structure does not encourage

productivityPoor Maintenance Culture


Governance 3

Policy constraints:

Cumbersome curriculum approval process at national level;

Federal no-tuition-fee policy – impoverishes universities leading to inadequate resources for their programmes

Illegal ( & poorly provided) programmes and affiliations

Relevance: Curricula seek merely to meet national standards and are not solution-oriented.2012 CODAPNU Annual Conf., Abuja 24

Quality and Relevance


Environment and other challenges

ICT and Globalization Irregular academic calendar No or poor Industry-University Cooperation Aids Pandemic: Loss of valuable human resources Community relations: Encroachment on university

lands; Poor outreach and community service provision

Miscellaneous Challenges


National Universities Commission

With 5 universities in 1962, FGN begin to experience challenges with coordination and regulation of these very complex institutions;

FGN therefore established NUC in 1962 as a unit in the Cabinet Office to ensure orderly development of universities in the country; NUC attained statutory status by Decree 1 of 1974.

Current Interventions 1: Regulation of Universities


Joint Admissions and Matriculations

Board

Universities (through CVC) experiencing waste of space from multiple admissions for the brighter candidates, requested FG to create a structure for coordination of university admissions;

Thus FG established JAMB to conduct entrance examinations and, in consultation with the universities, admit new entrants to the institutions.

Current Interventions 2: Orderly Admissions


Federal Government Regulation of universities & coordination of admissions Staff Motivation – periodic wage reviews/increases Increased funding for universities Improved quality of governing councils; stability Established more universities - access

National Universities Commission: Curriculum development for relevance – MAS (1989), BS

(2001) and BMAS (2004) Accreditation: UG, PG; Institutional Regulation, Monitoring and Evaluation: New state & private

universities; New programmes; etc.

Current Interventions 3: Roles


Industries

Advocacy & support for Public-Private-Partnerships: qualified success

Donations, Endowments, Etc.

Universities: Campaign against cultism (with assistance of FG); Regulations against “student extortion” through handouts;

Current Interventions 4


Role of Academic Planning: Advisory as part of Mgt.

Introduce Performance Audit: Management to constitute a committee either led or

resourced by academic planning.Committee to: Agree targets and performance indicators with those to be

assessed Do quarterly, half-yearly or annual audits of units; Get feedback from both assessors and the assessed units

on effectiveness of audit assessment; Advise Management on corrective measures.

Strategic Planning: Do university strategic plan with broad participation of

staff; key

Whither Academic Planning? 1


Role of Academic Planning cont’d: Hold academic staff accountable through

Student assessment of their teachers: Assessment at the end of courses taught and projects

supervised Develop formula for collating to produce an annual grade

from assessments

Formalise sharing of the university’s academic staff with other institutions: Develop regulations to guide those academics who wish to

teach at universities other than their primary assignment university.



Role of Academic Planning: Promote multimedia equipped and ICT-

enabled lecture theatres and halls: Equip with PowerPoint presentation equipment; voice

amplification equipment; etc. Introduce Internal Efficiency Strategies:

Develop consensus & reduce duplication of effort between Education, on the one hand, and Humanities and Sciences, on the other.

Same for Medicine (and other science-based professional disciplines) and Science.

Introduce proven ICT-based student registration systems



Role of Academic Planning cont’d: Succession:

Develop a well defined institutional succession strategy; Do management training for mid-level managers.

Develop and implement a “Bill of rights and responsibilities” for staff and students.

Improved funding strategies: Determine unit cost; base budgets in part on unit cost; Other creative strategies next:



Creative fund generation strategies:

Small and medium scale business Alumni contributions Manufacturing Rental of spaces and recreational facilities Consultancy services Marketing research results University-industry partnerships Cost sharing for municipal services Parents Forum



Multifarious challenges threaten the mission of universities;

Planning can help bring about positive change; Universities willing to reposition their institutions and embrace

reforms, can achieve their missions; Academic Planning functions as part of Management and must

therefore play a key role in ensuring orderly development of the institutions and continual improvements in their processes, programs and projects.

Conclusion


Thank you for listening.

And God bless

Professor Ignatius I. Uvah, PhD (Cantab) Agricultural, Management & Educational Consultant Maitama,...

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