Recently, the Vice Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja, Prof. Michael Hodd, bared his mind on the declining level of university education in Nigeria during an interactive chat with newsmen. AUGUSTINE OKEZIE was there:
What do you see as the main vision of Baze University
Baze University is well ranked as above the average university. We concentrated on standard and quality of the university being key things in upholding university education in Nigeria. Quality and good standard is our priority. We are private university and charge fees that are under half the cost of what Parents pay to send their kids to study in universities abroad.
What standards did the management put in place contrary to what obtains in other universities?
We have been operating since 2011, so we are just graduating our first year students. We have international staff who led various faculties. We also have external examiners from the United Kingdom and they monitor the progresses we make each session. The indication is that we are above the average for a university in the UK. Our academic standards are quiet high compared to the situation in some other public and private universities.
Of what impact is the presence of international staff on your students?
Absolutely tremendous. All our international staff are involved in teaching, as the Vice chancellor of the university, I teach. The Deans are all involved in teaching, there is no point in having international staff with world reputations coming in contact with the students without leaving them with a mark. Having International staff is certainly important. It is a tremendous loss to note that the availability of international staff in Nigerian Public universities has reduced. Knowledge is dynamic and Nigeria must be keyed into what is happening in the world. Presently we have five international staff.
How can public universities in Nigeria witness improvement?
The former governor of CBN, Charles Soludo, observed that 60 percent of Nigerian graduates from public universities are unemployable. That means 60percent of the money spent on university education in Nigeria is a total waste. Something needs to be done. Clearly there is a big task in building a world class university. There is no Nigeria university among the top five thousand universities in the world neither is there any among the top 10,000. It is not so in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana or even South Africa.
What is your view on the UNESCO directive that governments should reserve 26% of their annual budget on education?
I do not see the major problem here as lack of proper funding what I see is the problem of good management. The University staff in Nigeria is the best paid in Africa excerpt in the South Africa. The major problem is that most of the money made available for building in the campus are been mismanaged. If the Universities can address the problem of mismanagement in public universities in Nigeria in the context in which they are required to operate.
How can the government strengthen the university system?
There should be a strategy for enabling stronger standards and quality in the universities. Similarly the university management system needed to be overhauled, with primary focus on academic standards and discipline.
Why is Baze University not yet one of the centres of excellence?
It takes a university 10-15years to compete for a centre of excellence. Our concentration in Baze University is quality and good standard. recently two of our staff got international award of recognition and also a distinction from the world education congress. I believe the objective should be on concentrating on recruitment of good teachers and building their capacity towards a better university.
What’s your view on the trimester system of school calendar?
Our trimester program is common in the UK. The third semester allows our students to do industrial attachment mostly for four months. Thereby preparing them towards the world of Work.
What’s the plan of the university on developing entrepreneurship skills?
Baze University have entrepreneur programmes as part of our strategies of inculcating the business, vocational and other special skills in our students.
Do you have exchange programme currently?
Baze University do have an exchange program with university of Westminster in UK. Presently we do not have any with any universities in Nigeria.
What’s your policy on examination malpractices/anti-social vices?
We have no problem on this; we have a very careful intelligence network among the students and our staff. We operate on a zero tolerance for these vices and don’t hesitate to expel any student found guilty. Once a student is suspected to be engaging on drugs for instance we immediately invite him or her for testing and if he refuses to comply, he is expelled.
On the Chibok school-girls abduction
It is a dreadful situation. I can imagine how extremely difficult it is to liberate the abducted school girls. Really it is a difficult and tremendous task to have them return back to their parents.