Ex-LASU VC Fagbohun calls for TETFund law amendment to aid private university research for national development, address inadequate funding issues
Posted by Mutmainat Asamu | 2 years ago | 1,021 times
Former Lagos State University(LASU) Vice-Chancellor Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun has proposed amending the Tertiary Education Trust Fund law to allow private institutions to access funds for research, national development, and address inadequate funding issues.
Speaking at the 12th convocation lecture of Fountain University in Osogbo on Friday, Professor Fagbohun highlighted the poor conditions of many private universities, which he attributed to inadequate funding.
The 8th Vice-Chancellor of LASU who delivered a lecture on “The Nigerian University System: Between Public Hopes and Individual Expectations for the 21st Century” said Tetfund law should be amended to authorize private university lecturers to access the fund for their research.
According to him, research from both private and public universities should be funded because the university is the engine room of national development while research is recognized as a critical component for national development.
“ It's a time bomb that will, sooner rather than later, come back to haunt the system if not properly resolved. If we are going to face the truth, the current regime whereby fees paid in Nigeria's public institutions are a significant far cry from reality can never assure the sustainability of the system. It is for this reason that most of our public universities have become decrepit”, he said.
“A sore point that has continued to bedevil Nigerian universities is the frequent interruption of academic calendar by university-based unions. It is an issue that is tied to the perennial problem of inadequate funding, and which is capable of making nonsense of various laudable initiatives unless same is resolved to give stability to the system”
“The reason is simple, academics are mobile, the men in Fountain today might move to LASU tomorrow, so it's a large development. If we don’t recognise the fact that the university is the engine room of national development and we recognise that research is a critical component for national development, then wherever that lecturer maybe, develop his capacity, allow and find his research so that at the end of the day he can also add value to national development.”
Professor Fagbohun recommended that the government reevaluate the student loan program and provide financial assistance to indigent students through bursaries and scholarships.
Additionally, he urged the government to consider alternative methods of funding universities and proposed that they should start charging a significant amount of money to maintain the institutions.
“We must evolve new models of financing our universities and making them accountable. A starting point will be for the government to first inject funds to stabilize the institutions. Thereafter the government may begin to look at annual grants benchmarked against agreed performance indicators as is done with the World Bank Centres of Excellence”, he said.
“While one cannot on good moral ground defend the insincerity of government, particularly bearing in mind the waste of resources that we witness daily, it is time for public universities to start charging reasonable fees that will enable them to remain sustainable”, he added.
