Sunday Trust
December 2, 2012 – The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian (CVC), said on Saturday that Nigerians spend an average of 500 million dollars annually to European and American universities.
This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day Consultative Policy Dialogue on the Future and Relevance of the Nigerian Universities and other Tertiary Institutions, organised by CVC and TrustAfrica, Dakar.
The communiqué, signed by Prof. Michael Faborode, noted that the amount was about 70 per cent of the total allocation in 2008 to all federal universities.
It said that this was an indication of the loss of faith in Nigerian universities as shown by the rush for foreign institutions, even to other African countries.
It said that constant restiveness of students between host communities, school administration, weak governance structure and processes, were some of the challenges facing the Nigerian Higher Education Sector.
According to the communiqué, these have contributed to disruptions of the academic calendar, including the constant bickering between the academic staff union, other staff unions, university management and government.
The VCs said that this had thereby affected the culture of robust debate and collaborative engagement between government, university management and staff for a common vision and progress.
It noted that the global ranking of Nigerian universities had nose-dived considerably, adding that there had been growing concern over the quality of graduates from Nigerian universities.
The committee resolved to restore a culture of consultation, strategic productive engagement, and partnership, collaboration between management and staff of Nigerian higher education institutions.
It also resolved that the nature and dimension of the problems confronting higher education institutions in Nigeria would require a new approach to governance.
The communiqué also resolved that the appointment of vice chancellors must include respect for academic excellence, managerial, leadership capabilities, transparency and accountability.
It said that others were the non-negative application of the principle of federal character to stem the tide of emerging sectional agitations and clamour for indigenes and other parochial interests.
The committee also resolved that as much as possible, “indigene-ship’’ should not be critical in the appointment of vice chancellors. (NAN)