Specialised universities as the future of development
REPORTS that some specialised universities in Nigeria are veering away from their specific academic mandate to attract more students patronage is worrisome, because it can derail the official objective behind the establishment of the institutions in the first place. As the world moves in search of solutions to development, deploying tertiary education tailored in the use of science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, and medicine ( STEAMM), should be a concern to all and sundry. This suggests that specialised and multidisciplinary universities should remain within their mandates and not veer off the radar.
Specialised universities should remain on track and provide depth and expertise in specific fields; while multidisciplinary universities offering a diverse range of academic disciplines and fields of study which provide a broad educational experience, enabling students to explore various subject areas beyond their chosen major should also stay focused.
In addition, it calls for self re- examination to reposition our country for innovation and research needed to create business solutions that will fuel long- term economic growth; and Nigeria has a model in South Korea which has a state policy on Research and Development ( R& D); managed by a Ministry of Knowledge and Development. Today, the country produces Samsung which competes favourably with U. S. Apple products.
To balance the national development ‘ equation’ and accelerate growth and development, Nigeria should match paperwork and rhetoric with action in STEAMM education. Ignoring this will be at a ‘ huge’ cost and may have a negative effect on our national development.
Therefore, any Nigerian university deviating from its mandate, vision and mission is distorting the national plan and equilibrium of the Nigerian university system. So, it is unacceptable that institutions running programmes “antithetical to their mandates” have continued despite government warning to stop.
More worrisome is the fact that specialised universities with the mandate to produce manpower and expertise that would strengthen capacity in certain areas such as agriculture, technology, education, petroleum resources, maritime and medicine among others are metamorphosing into generalist and deviating from their original mandates. In fact, they are biting more than they can chew and offering ‘ controversial’ courses perhaps due to lack of political will to ensure compliance and conformity to their mandates.
For instance, why should universities of agriculture be offering programmes in Law and management courses such as Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Administration. Also, some institutions changed the nomenclature of some of the courses to read for instance, Banking Engineering, Accounting Technology, among other names.
This is an aberration and antithetical to the Federal Government’s agenda to position the country for accelerated growth in the 21st century because the aim of establishing specialised universities is to enable the country to produce a certain class of manpower that would focus on certain areas of need. A specialised degree focuses on a specific field of study or discipline to offer in- depth and concentrated programmes tailored to students who have a clear career path or interest in a particular area. They offer students a more specific curriculum and course structure that are customised and industry aligned based on current trends and future career scope; and offer more opportunities in terms of industry exposure including internships and placements.
They enable students to choose a niche and specialise in their chosen field using industryrelevant curriculum and co- operative training needed to jump- start their careers. The industry aligned curriculum mentored and delivered through co- opt training with top industry experts impart students with knowledge for launching their careers and enhance graduate employability skills that is the ability to perform a set of tasks related to the job at an acceptable level of productivity. In school, skills needed to do a job are learnt while being closely connected to the field of job they are aspiring for through internship and co- opt training. This ultimately will avail graduates of decent career opportunities, because employers prefer job applicants with relevant practical experience in their fields.
As such, the specialised degree programmes prepare graduates to be relevant and competitive in the job market. Hence, setting up specialised universities is to ensure that students acquire degrees that are both technically and professionally oriented; and provide them the best knowledge and skill set needed to move the nation forward and make our population competitive in the national and international labour markets. Hence, there should be no controversy over the relevance of specialised varsities.
All said, as the current job market becomes more and more competitive, demonstrating real- world applications of learnt skills from training becomes extremely significant for employment. Thus, the best degree is the one that combines knowledge and skills which coincide with the global market demand. This suggests that institutions, in particular the specialised universities across the nation running programmes “antithetical to their mandates” and offering courses they were not authorised to run are ‘ duping’ hundreds of Nigerian students. Argument that specialised universities face the challenge of inadequate funding that make them veer into high- demand programmes to secure additional income is not acceptable.
The world is fast changing and the reality is that education has become more dynamic and evolving, which may justify why the
National Universities Commission ( NUC) is also unbundling programmes in Nigerian universities instead of mere curriculum update that may still lack practical case studies and fail to give graduates the right exposure needed to ‘ nail’ their roles and responsibilities at a real job. It is imperative to revisit Nigerian specialised universities that are distorting the national plan and equilibrium of the Nigerian tertiary education and ensure that they stop such with forthwith. Again, the government should be more committed in terms of providing laboratories and field equipment for practicum; and provide funds for other technical facilities for the purpose of providing optimal training and functional education for our students.
Also, the universities’ Senate, House Committee on Tertiary Education, Ministry of Education and NUC should rise to the occasion and step up their oversight functions in order to ensure that universities stay within the mandate, vision and mission for setting them up without deviation. They should ensure that universities stick to the core mandates for which they were set up and stop running programmes, which have no bearing to their names and foundation. The NUC should urgently revisit the accreditation of courses being offered by specialised universities which are at variance with their original mandate; and subsequent NUC accrediting teams should be made to turn its searchlight in the direction of the mandates of universities.
In addition, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board ( JAMB) should ensure that only courses within the mandate of each university are available on its portal. This will sanitise the specialised universities’ unfortunate incursion into areas not designed for them.