Autonomy and satellite campuses

Autonomy and satellite campuses

While receiving the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan recently, Governor Lam Adesina joined other notable educationists who would want an end to what he referred to as the meddlesomeness of the NUC in our universities. He opined that the spirit of true federalism be allowed to prevail on our national policy on higher education. Uncle Lam is definitely right. Indeed, central authorities like JAMB and NUC except if regionalised are anachronistic to a federal union like ours. In a true federal system, universities should feel free to use their services or dispense with them.

The way in which government agencies breathed down on our universities, a carryover of the unitary system practised under military dictatorship, is now very illegal and it must stop. In law, it is the Senate of the university that has the final say on academic programmes. Not even the university council. The latter holds sway in administrative matters like conditions of service of staff, etc. With autonomy underway for our universities, the politicisation of high education would cease and this would gladden the heart of aspiring university students, their parents, and all other stakeholders in education.

With respect to the equally very important issue of improving standards in our universities' main and satellite campuses, this must be considered a serious academic matter for the Senate of each university involved to look into. It is not a Federal Executive Council business. Neither is it a political issue to be subsumed in the North-South tussle for ascendancy as to which side produces more graduates. Actually if people know their rights and are ready to prevent its infringement, closure of outreach programmes can only be done by the Senate of the specific university. Any other body assuming the capacity to send home an already matriculated student, who has not infringed any of the university's rules, is merely laying claims to powers it does have. Also, state governments can in fact establish their own regulatory units within their ministries of education and publish the guidelines that campuses in their domain must meet.

Again, threatening the entire system on the pages of newspapers will not get us anywhere. Even with the best of intentions the serious business of sanitising our educational system is becoming a circus show. Definitely what is important at the end of the day is not where the student studied but his ability to display a firm grasp of what has been learnt. It is really debatable whether ivory tower mentality is not a luxury for a developing country like ours. Even if students are taught in distant campuses, the conduct of examinations can still be handled directly by the university. Some of the best external degree programmes or open universities in the world like those of the University of London and University of South Africa, have thousands of students worldwide but they conduct their exams at specific centres themselves or via accredited agents such as the British Council or the Education attaches in their embassies abroad. So if the worry is about quality, this is a way out for us in Nigeria.

The proposed National Distance Learning Programme cannot work without the input of study centres with adequate facilities. Some form of occasional face to face interaction between learners and teachers must exist particularly given our erratic power supply and communication facilities. Besides, it takes a genius to study in isolation and that is why interactive aspect of learning would still create the need for even more study centres. As to quality of those centres, we must not carry things too far. If a man chooses to study in a shed rather than in a proper classroom, it is his democratic right and we must not infringe it.

Therefore, the government should take a deeper look at the issue of satellite campuses and study its pros and cons. It is indeed the plausible avenue for attracting private sector investment into a cash-strapped system instead of an IMF bail out. Thus, they must be encouraged and entrenched fully into our higher education system, after efforts are made to bring them up to standard. This is what the advanced countries have done.

On the part of the NUC, the only way it can retain its credibility at home and abroad is to keep to its established guidelines when accessing institutions, otherwise it will become suspect particularly now that people are reading political meaning into the whole thing. The Association of Commonwealth Universities, UNESCO and other international educational organisations are watching and they have their representatives here. If we get to a level where foreign countries and organisations begin to rely on the assessment of their diplomats on ground rather than the NUC, then it will be a bad time not just for NUC but for this entire nation which is just trying to regain its lost respectability.

To the credit of the Obasanjo administration, it indeed ventured to put quality into this aspect of our educational system by instructing the NUC to go round the country to assess their facilities, problems facing them, etc with a view to coming up with a policy to enhance their performance and contributions within the totality of our educational system. The NUC visitation panel to the satellite campuses comprised respected academics from the nation's universities. At the head of each panel were university professors with names to protect. Also, acting as secretaries to those committees, were seasoned officials from within the NUC. Obviously, the reports would cover both good and bad satellite campuses. When NUC announced that all the campuses are bad, it forgot that vice-chancellors also have copies of the signed results of those visitation panels. Besides, no university has devolved the power to issue degree certificates to outreach campuses so what is the story about those campuses issuing certificates?

Also, threatening that their students will not get jobs or will not serve in NYSC is laughable but sad. A respectable government agency should never resort to blackmail. The employers consultative bodies do not rely on NUC. They interview candidates for jobs by themselves. Neither is NYSC under NUC. To participate in NYSC either actively or by exception certificate is a law. And graduate dodging NYSC infringes a law. So also is anyone discriminating against a graduate of an accredited university based on where he studied. By the way, is there any university in the world that is in the habit of inserting place of study on its certificates?

Students in outreach campuses are not sheep. They wont just abandon their educational aspirations and go home. To avoid further damage to our educational system and avert needless crisis for this good government, there is the crucial necessity to protect both the interests of thousands of students in the satellite campuses as well as that of the university system itself. Neither should they be short changed. Accordingly, the Senate of our universities must use their autonomy prudently by halting the operation of substandard satellite campuses. Likewise, it should encourage the good ones that are helping to keep off the pressures from the main campuses where over population and cult breeding tensions now pervades. The fact is, some of the universities have maintained very high standards in their satellite campuses while some have not. It is also surprising that some study centres are operating without authority from the parent universities. All these should be corrected.

Dr. Owoeye is a lecturer of International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife