TETFund as vent for tertiary institutions

Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has become a house hold name in the higher education sector that private institution owners are neck bent to participate in the intervention of the Fund. From north to south east to west, there is virtually no tertiary institution, except privately owned that the presence of the Fund is not conspicuously noted. The numerous infrastructures, vis-a-vis edifices with modern architectural designs, speak volume of how TETFund is committed to the development of tertiary institutions in the country. Although the federal government has removed special intervention from the 2017 budget of the Fund, its normal intervention is shared at the ratio of 41 per cent for universities, 30 per cent for polytechnics and 29 per cent for colleges of education at federal and state levels.

Th ese normal interventions are expected to be spent on physical infrastructures and equipment, library development, academic staff training and development, which over 10, 000 academics have benefi ted across higher institutions in the country. TETFund also inputs in tertiary institutions development through Book Development Fund, National Research Fund, Journal Publications, Staff Conference Attendance and Manuscripts Development. Th e High Impact Intervention, specifi cally introduced to address specifi c and peculiar areas as enshrined in the TETFund Act, was divided into fi ve phases.

At the phase one level, 13 institutions drawn from the six geo-political zone benefi ted from the N26.4 billion earlier earmarked, while 12 institutions also benefi ted from N 24 billion set aside for the second phase in the six zones. Only six institution, each from the geopolitical zones, were expected to benefi t from the N10billion, while at the phase four level, 12 institutions benefi ted from N24 billion, while the fi fth phase was specifi ed for another 12 institutions for a total amount of 24 billion. Benefi ting from TETFund intervention is nevertheless automatic. Any institution entitled to it must fulfi ll certain conditions before it could receive assistance from the Fund. Although the rules and regulation for accessing intervention were not too stringent in the past, the appointment of Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baff a, saw to the modifi cation of conditions for accessing interventions.

LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT FUND For instance, to access fund for Library Development, beneficiary institutions must show evidence of a functional and properly constituted Library Development Committee (LDC) “which meets and makes recommendations to the head of institution on matters relating to the library. “Submission of the library Collection Development Policy [CDP] for the institution; submission of list of books to be procured must be made based on the institution’s CDP and guided by the TETFund template. “Submissions of other library resources, including tools and equipment to be procured and must be made in accordance with the TETFund template for acquisition of library resources. “All submissions must be accompanied with the minutes of the meeting of the institution’s LDC and for electronic resources (e-Resources), the institution’s electronic resources policy must be submitted together with any request for acquisition of such resources.

vii. All proposals must be submitted in hard and soft copies (flash drive). Advance copy may be sent to [email protected] and ess@ tetfund.gov.ng 2 and at least 70 per cent of total allocation shall be used for the procurement of books and periodicals, while all submissions must be accompanied with a covering letter signed by or on behalf of the head of the institution. Executive summary of the proposal by the institution should at all times, be submitted to TETFund asvent for tertiary institutions Since the stabilisation of its mandates, many tertiary institutions are now looking up to TETFund for funding, MARTIN PAUL writes. the Fund. In addition to the above requirements, benefi ciary institutions should note that once approval is granted for procurement of “books and/or other library resources, substitutions and/ or changes in the approved specifi cations and terms of acquisition shall not be entertained”. Funds for library development intervention shall not be utilised for procurement of consumables or any other items.

INSTITUTION – BASED RESEARCH FUND Th e core objective of the IBR intervention is to avail Nigerian scholars working in any of the Fund’s benefi ciary institution, with small grants to support and promote well-defi ned research projects and to enable individual researchers to collaborate with, and bring benefi ts to, other individuals, institutions and organisations. Disbursement of the intervention grant is guided by:

(1) ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible for the award of the IBR grant, applicants must fulfill the following: (a) the lead researcher must reside in Nigeria, (b) be a full-time and confirmed academic staff of the beneficiary institution, (c) demonstrate an independent capability to undertake and lead researches by submitting a coherent research proposal based on approved template accompanied with curriculum vitae, (d) co-investigators must meet the requirements of the lead-researcher and should be able to take over from the leadresearcher, if need be, (e) the proposal in (iii) above must pass through internal assessment process and be recommended by relevant research committees of the department and the institution, and a scholar shall not benefi t from more than one IBR grant concurrently.

(2) THE PROCESS: Research proposals by eligible applicants must be submitted to the institution’s relevant committees through the departmental research committees; ii. Recommendations from the institution should be sent to the Fund accompanied with all relevant documentation and a cover letter signed by, or on behalf of, the head of the institution, stating: a. Th e type of research (include a copy of the accepted proposal); b. Whether individual or group (indicate the number of staff involved and their disciplinary backgrounds); c. Research budget; and d. Research timeline. iii. Submissions should be made in both hard and soft copy (on memory stick not CD-ROM). Advance copy may be sent to [email protected] and ess@tetfund. gov.ng iv. Minutes (or decision extracts) of the meeting of the relevant research committees of the institutions should accompany each submission from the benefi ciary institutions; v. Approval of the Fund would be communicated to the institution while award letters would be communicated to the principal researchers 4 (lead researchers) through their institutions. And 60% of the grant would be disbursed as fi rst tranche; vi. Disbursement of the 2nd tranche` of 40% is contingent upon submission of progress report by the researchers (via the benefi ciary institution) as well as evidence of publication of at least one article in a relevant fi rst quartile journal (Q1) or at least two articles in second quartile journals (Q2 journals); vii. Th e research funds will be central and competitive within the benefi ciary institution. Selection shall be on merit, based on the strength and quality of individual or group proposals; viii. TETFund should be acknowledged as the sponsor of the research in a footnote in the fi rst page of a paper/ monograph or as appropriate in a book/report. NOTE (i) Where a research is being pursued by an individual and the researcher becomes incapacitated, the grant shall be cancelled and the balance of the grant payed back into the institution’s IBR Account; (ii) Th e grant is to cover researchers in all disciplines of any of the benefi ciary institution.

(3) GUIDELINES FOR IBR BUDGET Institution Based Research (IBR) proposal needs to have a detailed budget justifi cation TETFund Executive Secretary, Dr, Abdullahi Baff a which demonstrates that the researcher has given a thorough and careful consideration of the cost of the study. Th e following should serve a general guide for budget preparation to access the IBR Intervention funds: (a) PERSONNEL COST: Extant stipends and allowances for Research Assistants and (b) Document the basis used for calculating the cost c) Personnel cost must be less than 10 per cent of the total grant. SUPPLIES EXPENSES (a) Only supplies that are directly relevant to the research plan b) Explain in detail why specifi c supplies are needed c) Do not request general offi ce supplies or general laboratory supplies iii. EQUIPMENT AND TESTS (b) Explain the line items (why they are necessary); do not merely restate the proposed expenditure (c) Provide accurate price quotes for equipment, (d) Provide suffi cient details to justify rationale for acquiring the item under the proposed study and explain why items are essential in relation to the aims and methodology of the study as well as meeting the goals of the study, among other requirements and conditions according to areas of which interventions are needed. Little wonder, therefore, that at the 2016 intervention year, over 300 institutions queued with intense pressure to benefi t from the funds. Until recently, proprietors of private universities have also mounted pressure to benefit from TETFund intervention, but Baff a has consistently maintained that the Act establishing the Fund is for public federal and setae institutions. “We have 203 benefi ciary institutions that we are supporting and we have request from over 300 other institutions not qualifi ed by the Act to be brought on board. “It is something worth looking at for us to expand the perimeter of the fund to include all these institutions but we also have to look at the other side of the coin. Diluting the impact TETFund is making at the benefi ciary institutions is going to be very counterproductive to entire educational landscape. “You recall that before 2011, TETFund was called ETF, Education Trust Fund that was supporting education from primary schools to basic and tertiary education. Because the original conception was targeted at supporting university education alone, government saw the opportunity to support the entire educational landscape which is good. “But when it was experimented up to 2010, the regulation or control was extremely diffi cult and government decided to review the Act and concentrate the intervention on tertiary education. Th e Act defi nes tertiary education as public universities, Polytechnics and colleges of education. In other words all monothecnics were excluded. “All other tertiary institutions that are not universities, Polytechnics and colleges were excluded so that we concentrate the intervention fund to lift public tertiary institutions from the doldrums that they found themselves. “We are to provide the basic infrastructure for teaching and learning, support the equipping of laboratories, workshop studios, support research activities, training of scholars to acquire higher education, attend conferences, support the publishing of manuscript and also be able to support the publishing of journals by these institutions and such other things that will be needed to improve the overall quality of tertiary education in the country”, Baff a had said.

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