Our plan to make OOU world-class - VC

Professor Odutola Osilesi,
Vice Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo
University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun StateProfessor Odutola Osilesi, Vice Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, recently addressed journalists on the challenges facing the university and the plan to make OOU world-class, among other issues. SULAIMON OLANREWAJU was at the briefing.

How has it been steering the ship of this university?
The experience has been challenging and fascinating. When you are in a profession you like, you will enjoy what you do. So far, I have enjoyed the experience. But I must say it is a complex system in the university. It is a system that has divergent opinions and people of different characters. But that is not to say that we cannot accommodate them. The more divergent the opinions that we have the better for us because what we are doing is developing an enduring system.The students of today are smarter than their parents. As a result of the smartness, they do both positive and negative things. Their negative activities result in aberrant behaviours. If students don’t have enough to do, they end up engaging in anti-social activities like cultism, etc. Yet, we as trainers, understand that. We try as much as possible to ensure that the anti-social behaviours are curbed by training them to understand that what they should stand for are progressive ideas.

How do you attract outstanding faculty members?
We have been able to attract very good hands because this university presents a lot of programmes that are not even available in most universities in this country. Right now, we have 52 accredited programmes. That means the ration of professors to senior lecturers to junior lecturers has to be maintained for full accreditation. Also, we have six new programmes that are to be introduced. Actually, they have not been approved but have been recognised by the NUC (National Universities Commission) making a component of about 58 programmes. Some of the professors handling these courses are former vice chancellors. We have people like prof.Babunmi, former Vice Chancellor of Lagos state University. We also have Prof. Adamson, former Vice Chancellor of University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Some of these people have distinguished themselves in their career. We have 95 professors, 45 associate professors, 210 PhD holders and many others are about to complete their PhD programmes.

There are complaints by your sandwich programme students that they are yet to collect their results years after completing their programme?
As of today, I know that our senate has taken results till about 2006 for the sandwich programme. A lot of things were outstanding and it was not because they were not preparing their result. I want to assure you that as from the next graduation exercise which will be in January, all our outstanding results will have been updated. Senate has even taken some 2007 results. Senate has affirmed that any member of staff that fails to forward the result in time will have his salary withdrawn. As far as I am concerned, I will just have to implement that. But seriously, I must thank the staff for what they are doing. They are making sure that all the results are ready and they have been presenting this to the senate. In fact, some of our students who went on NYSC recently received all their results.

What are the plans to make OOU a world class university?
The standard a university maintains is important. We are working hard on that. The starting point really is making sure that the academic standard is acceptable. Today in this university, we have 52 accredited programmes. That tells a lot about the quality of the university. But then, that is not the only issue. There is also the issue of facilities. We have been improving on the physical infrastructure of the university. We now have one of the best law faculties in this country. We have a moot court that is second to none. I want to thank the state government for taking us seriously and supporting our accreditation efforts 100 per cent. Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Ogun state governor, was personally in touch to make sure that the accreditation was successful.

Our college of medicine has been fully accredited. The products of that college are the leaders wherever they find themselves. Some of the products of the college came first in American exams. Not only that, when you look at the performance of the products of this university, it is heart warming. One of our students came first in the First Bank Essay Writing in 2007. Being first is not what happens in a backward institution. Our students came first in the male and female 4x100 relay races in the last Abuja athletics meet. That is the kind of report that gladdens your heart as a Vice Chancellor. But we are not even folding our arms because of the feats we have recorded, we want to soar higher. We have become ICT compliant. Our students are daily being exposed to the modern things of the world. That is why I disagree that the standard of education in Nigeria is falling. If Nigerians are performing excellently well across the globe, I wonder what we mean when we say our education standard is falling.

The way I see it is that given the same opportunity as others, products of Nigerian educational system will perform as well as if not better than people from other parts of the world. The major challenge of the Nigerian university system is funding. The federal and state governments should take funding seriously. Right now, the only state we know in this country that has met the UNESCO recommendation of allocating 26 per cent of GNP to education is Ogun state. This is why we speak well about the state government. Funding is so critical in education. When there is adequate funding, infrastructure will be improved upon. When there is adequate funding, the welfare of staff and students is taken care of. One of the reasons we have to increase fees is because we need funds to run the system.

For more than 15 years, Olabisi Onabanjo University retained the lowest fee structure in the country where some of the students were paying as low as N3,000. We had to go to government for an approval to increase the fees. If you look at the cost of diesel, millions of naira goes into that. In terms of meeting standard, I think our standard is far better than what we have in many other universities. We are still interested in improving our physical infrastructure, in improving the facilities we have. We realise that the government alone cannot do it. So, we have put in place an endowment fund while also appealing to public-spirited people. A lot of the structures on this campus were built by donors. We are targeting N10bn through the endowment fund. We are asking every working adult in Ogun State to give us N5,000 per annum so that within a few years we can generate adequate funds to run the university.

Given what it takes to run a university, do you think that operators of private universities can sustain the system?
I think private universities in the country must work at the same level. They must be of acceptable standards. That is why their fees are relatively higher than those of public universities. Private universities have a role to play in Nigeria. There are only 27 federal universities and 31 state universities. Private universities are 34 altogether making 92 for a population of over 140 million.

A few days ago, I was in Abuja attending the NUC/JAMB meeting. For the whole of this country, universities were preparing to admit only 153,000. Can you imagine that?
Where will those other students go? Unless we have more of these private universities, our students will be sent abroad. But how many people can afford that expense. Really, we need to review intakes. Luckily for us, our admission quota has been increased to 3,800 beginning from next academic session.

What is your view on university autonomy?
University autonomy is desirable. What we are doing is to ensure that our staff can enjoy freedom of expression. There are also some advantages to autonomy. In terms of appointment, between the governing council and those that are managing an institution, they can appoint their own staff and ensure that things are done internally within the control of the university system. If you take away university autonomy, what you find out is that it is possible for any political group or any government in power to begin to make a mockery of the university system. They can dislodge people when they like, they can do all sorts of things when they like. When you give a university the right to assess itself, appoint its own professors and appoints people into positions, it helps the system. That is what universities across the globe are enjoying and I don’t think that autonomy should be taken away from Nigerian universities.