OLUWATOYIN OGUNDIPE: Collaboration between UNILAG and German Varsities will Aid Our Students to Compete Globally

Olaode

In its effort to enrich its global education in innovation, collaboration, research, culture and academic exchange programmes, the management of University of Lagos led by its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, recently held a submit tagged ‘Partnership for Change’ with German Universities in Frankfurt, Germany. The jointly organised summit facilitated by the Consulate General of Nigeria in Frankfurt was held at Goethe-University, Frankfurt. On the sideline of the submit, Prof. Ogundipe spoke with Funke

on how the partnership will position UNILAG to be among the top universities in the world while strengthening academic relationships between Nigerian universities and its European counterparts DWWUDFWHGUHVHDUFKJUDQWV /RRNDWWKHQRQ WHDFKLQJVWDͿ WZRRI them, Bolarinwa and one other person got research grants. So University of Lagos has continued to blaze the trail.

Your university held a summit in Frankfurt recently tagged ‘Partnership for Change.’ Why are you so passionate about this innovation that will bring changes into the 1LJHULDQ V\VWHP LQ OHVV WKDQ ÀYH PRQWKV to your exit? Well, I think it’s about loyalty. It is about the system that I have worked in for 32 years. So I am very optimistic, believing that whoever comes in as a new Vice Chancellor will meet the structure on ground. It will be an auto piloting system. And even when I am not there the Deputy Vice-Chancellor can perform and perform excellently well.

What is your takeaway from this summit?

My takeaway is that we need to have a new system of running the universities in Nigeria. We always complain that we don’t have enough resources from the government, which I quite agree with, but we need to look inward. And one of the ways through which we can run our system is to have collaboration with other universities outside the country. And if you look at this arrangement, it is not only about the university, it is also DERXW WKH FRPPXQLW\ $QG \RX ÀQG RXW WKDW LQ WKH FRPPXQLW\ they have all that is needed to assist in moving the university forward. My take on it is that, that brand, the University of Lagos, we need to continue to talk about the brand outside the country, so that they will know that we have a brand. If you look at it, they (the German universities) are happy to associate with the University of Lagos. They are even looking forward to coming to the University of Lagos.

How many universities did you engage with during the summit?

We had discussions with about four universities and one company that is ready to partner us particularly in Germany: University of Applied Sciences, Fachhochschule Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz, ProEnergie GmbH & Co. KG, Laatzen, Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences, Schmalkalden, University of Münster, Münster and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe.

And beyond Nigerian students coming to Germany, how GR \RX WKLQN WKLV VXPPLW ZLOO EH EHQHÀFLDO WR 1LJHULD DQG Nigerian students?

One, we are talking about student mobility - at least student exchange in the area of engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, law, even economics. In another university, we are talking about technology, looking at the strength of that university. In another university, we are talking about social sciences. So, what we are bringing in is to look at the strength of those universities and link ourselves with the strength of those universities. Two, we are looking at the possibility of linking those lecturers to our own lecturers in University of Lagos so that WKH\ZLOOEHDEOHWRZRUNWRJHWKHU 7KDWLVIRUWKHVWDͿ $SDUWIURP UHVHDUFK ZH DUH DOVR WDONLQJ DERXW VWDͿ PRELOLW\ VWDͿ FRPLQJ WR use their facility for one month, two months. One of our lecturers in the English Department, Dr. Oloko is already in Germany for a one month programme. The advantage is that it is not only going WR EH VWXGHQW PRELOLW\ ,W LV DOVR JRLQJ WR EH VWDͿ PRELOLW\ 7KDW LV RXU RZQ VWDͿ ZLOO FRPH WR WKH XQLYHUVLW\ KHUH 7KHLU RZQ VWDͿ WRR will come to our university. It’s not a one directional agreement. Like I said, we don’t want to be parasitic, we want to have a V\PELRWLF UHODWLRQVKLS VR WKDW WKH\ DOVR SUHVHQW WKHLU RZQ VWDͿ In October or thereabout one or two of them are coming to our university so that we can enhance and expand the relationship.

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with its peculiarity. One talked about the waste-to-wealth. They talked about generating gas. I think they talked about solar, in the area of wind we cannot do that of wind, or using wind to generate power because the speed that we have in UNILAG is not enough to generate enough power. You know Lagos State tried it during former Governor Babatunde Fashola and they did not succeed. People don’t know the reason. The reason is that the wind speed we have cannot move that blade consistently to generate enough power. So we are looking at waste to power and we are also looking at solar. And I also want you to know that there is a team in UNILAG now that is producing solar panels. It is not that we are just folding our arms and expecting them to just come and give us all that we want, no. We are working on a possibility of what we need to do to generate power locally. Also, in the area of startup, you know we are talking about innovation. $ ORW RI SURJUDPPHV DUH LQ WKH SLSHOLQH WKDW ZLOO EHQHÀW WKHLU own students so that they will be able to compete with their counterparts in Germany.

:LWKLQ WKH ODVW ÀYH \HDUV \RX KDYH DWWUDFWHG DV PXFK DV about 18 billion in terms of grants to the university. What is the status of those particular grants?

We have a grant from I think from Tetfund, we have gotten a total grant of over three or four hundred million naira. I don’t NQRZWKHVSHFLÀFWKLQJQRZ :HKDYHIURPWKH:RUOG%DQN )URP the World Bank, we have two centres that are running now and the two will be around $9 million. We have from the European Union too. So we have in medicine, we have in biological sciences, we have in law, Facebook. We have another one which BCMs is involved in. I think that one is the European community or European Union, which we just got with some universities. We just got another one last week, which is $250,000 in the area of DUWLÀFLDO LQWHOOLJHQFH 'U

We learnt that the process was facilitated by the Nigerian ConsulateGeneralinFrankfurt.Canyoushedmorelightonthis?

Before coming to Germany you were in the UK, is there any GL;HUHQFH EHWZHHQ ZKDW KDSSHQHG LQ WKH 8. DQG *HUPDQ\"

The mission in the United Kingdom was fantastic too. I want us to know that by the time they are going to do the ranking of the University of Lagos next year, it will be among the top universities in the world. When we got to Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, they themselves were happy to receive us. In fact, in Edinburgh, they said that they need to learn from us too in the area of entrepreneurship and FinTech. That FinTech in Nigeria is good. Like I said earlier, it is not going to be parasitic, we want to have a symbiotic relationship and it is already yielding results. By next year, Architecture students with one or two of their lecturers from Dundee University are coming to University of Lagos. And our students in the Department of Architecture will be going to Dundee to learn about architectural design and other things in Dundee. We are going beyond that, like I said, student mobility, presently some of our students, I think one or two of our students are in Turkey. And they told me that one of our students is here in Germany, on student mobility. So we are going to improve student mobility to expose our students to that international space. We are not stopping at that. We are going to even encourage our students, expose them to the universities that are ready to admit them for their masters or postgraduate programmes. One of the universities has promised to absorb our students for their master’s programme and it is going to be tuition free. So these are the things that we are talking about to make our students exposed. If you look at what I said in my statement on UNILAG, I said for our students to be relevant locally and to compete globally. Somebody told me of one university that they have arrangements to admit people with 2.1 from Nigeria. By the time they told them about UNILAG they were admitting students with 2.2 from University of Lagos.

Now that you are leaving, beyond all these within the next couple of years, what would you like to hear about the University of Lagos?

I am proud to lead the team. Like you mentioned earlier, some people are asking me, that you have four months to go, why are you doing this? It is not about me, it is about the university. Somebody said what do you want to be remembered for? And I said, I want to be remembered as somebody who emptied himself to move the university forward. That is me. I have never worked anywhere in my life, apart from University of Lagos. And I never applied for vice-chancellorship, appointment, anywhere before. So I am proud of this partnership and collaboration because I want UNILAG to be well-recognised at the national and international level. I want to hear of universities who are coming up with solutions concerning the problems that we have with the country. But I want you to know that nobody can help us. No country will come help us. It is only the universities and research institutes in Nigeria that will help the country to move forward. I want to see a university where there is peace. I want to see a university where the students are well known all over the world. Like I said UNILAG is a brand, I am happy to be part of that progressive brand.

Ogundipe