As governments, unions and other stakeholders grapple with challenges of managing 21st century university system, a former Vice Chancelor and General Secretary of the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU), Prof Yakubu Ochefu has advised about the emergence of new ownership models that will take over proprietorship of universities in Nigeria.
He said the new group shall comprise of “Public-Private Institutions, for-profit and publicly traded universities”.
According to the professor of economic history, this group, which he called the “edupreneurs will grow and overtake existing institutions providing significantly increased personal choice for all, from pre-school to post-graduate studies.”
Prof Ochefu, who spoke on “Rethinking the Philosophy of University Education in Nigeria in the Era of Education 4.0” was the guest lecturer at the 81st Interdisciplinary Research Discourse of University of Ibadan Postgraduate College.
Delving into the economics of global education the former Vice Chancellor disclosed that tertiary education has a global market value of $763 billion. He stated further that when compounded, this grows by 14.59% every year.
He also said that the World Bank estimates that there were 220 million students worldwide in 2020 and that number will rise to 380 million by 2030.The Big ASK is where will we in Nigeria be in all these developments. He then asked, “where will we in Nigeria be in all these developments?”
The CVCNU helmsman disclosed that Nigeria currently has a total of 116 Public and 149 Private universities. He said 53 public universities are owned by the federal government while 63 are owned by State Governments. He went further to chronicle the challenges confronting public universities in Nigeria to include poor funding, governance issues, lack of qualified teaching and non-teaching staff, poor technology and infrastructure base, amongst others.
He advised that all stakeholders must make deliberate efforts to address these challenges to enable university education in Nigeria to measure up to the disruptive feature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Precisely, he admonished that an innovative design for the emerging tertiary educational system must be one that focuses on institutional pedagogical outcomes, which in turn influence curriculum, the flow of knowledge and the type of knowledge shared, as well as the behaviours of students, instructors, and governance team leaders.
He illustrated his advocacy with the idea of a “Polymath University” that is based on an educational theory that suggests that original thought and creativity can be obtained by connecting seemingly unrelated ideas and concepts.
Beyond the management structure, Prof Ochefu also dwelt extensively on the nature and pedagogy of university education in the fourth industrial revolution (Education 4.0). He said the disruptive impact of the new era entails ubiquity of learning, aided by the internet, as opposed to localised type as well as overall democratization of access.
In concluding, Professor Ochefu X-rayed the pivotal role of the Vice Chancellor as the CEO of the university. Referencing the famous British higher education teacher, Geoffrey Boulton, Prof Ochefu asserts, “It could be said that changing a university is like moving a graveyard – you get no help from the people inside!”.
