Afolayan: Outcome-based Education Will Help Graduates to Create Jobs

Joseph Afolayan is the pioneer Vice-Chancellor, Anchor University, Lagos. In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, the professor of Civil Engineering explained why tertiary institutions in Nigeria should drive outcome-based education to equip graduates with the necessary skills to be job creators rather than seekers, among other issues. Excerpts:

Since you came on board, how are you steering the ship of the faith-based Anchor University, Lagos?

The kind of support that has helped me as an individual to do whatever has been done, to the level where we are today, is, first of all, the grace of God because it is a faith-based university. Without it, we cannot go far. Secondly, we have a well-defined vision that determines the direction where we go. Thirdly, I have the support of team members who are well-informed and believe in the university’s vision. So we have been able to run together. Fourthly, this is a private university. We have the support of our proprietor. These are the things that actually assisted us to be where we are today.

How many courses has NUC accredited, and what effort is the management making to offer more?

As of the time we got the license to practice as a university in November 2016, there were 15 programmes approved for take-off. We started academic activities in February 2017 when the university actually took off. That was the date I assumed office as the pioneer VC. With the 15 approved take-off programmes, we started admitting students. But we were only able to have students for 13 out of the 15 programmes. By the NUC requirement, three years after the take-off of any programme, there should be preparation for accreditation. All the 13 that were matured for accreditation were presented between October and November 2019. Of the 13 courses, 11 received full accreditation status, while two (Physics and Economics) had interim. With the interim status, the overall scores for the two of them were well above 80 per cent. But because there were different factors that have to be put in place for accreditation. If you have less than 70 per cent in any of them, even if overall you have 90 per cent, you cannot have full accreditation. The NUC was not satisfied with the level of staffing for Physics and Economics. They felt that there were some books they expected in our library, which were not there then. But by the grace of God, if they come tomorrow, we are set for the full accreditation of these two courses now.

For a young institution, what were your teething problems, and how did you overcome them?

One of them has to do with students enrolment. I have worked in public universities before, so there are some programmes that generally some prospective students don’t want to go into because they feel that they are not selling in terms of job opportunities. People don’t want to subscribe to them. At Anchor University, because of the training and philosophy, which we call Outcome-Based Education (OBE), we believe that whatever programme they go to and graduate from, they should not be looking for jobs. But they should be job creators and even engage other people. We are currently doing strategic marketing procedures. In 2018, we approached NUC with additional academic programmes. We proposed 15, and 14 were approved for us. It is one of the ways of solving students’ enrolment. The other thing is staff recruitment. It is a challenge on two grounds. The first one is that this is a private university we just started, and many staff will still prefer to stay far off to see the university’s sustainability before they can be part of us. That challenge was there, but eventually, God assisted us to recruit more qualified staff, particularly after we got accreditation. So people got to know that Anchor meant business. So we began to receive applications from people. As a faith-based school, recruitment of staff for a university that is just starting, we needed people who believed in the university’s core values. That means it is not just bringing in people anyhow. We must access them through interviews. By the grace of God, people have started seeing that Anchor has come to stay as a university. There are some other areas of our development, too, that I believe encouraged prospective staff to desire to keep to the university’s mandate, especially in our collaborations.

Is there collaboration with international institutions, and how’s that impacting the university and students?

We have collaborations with institutions and organisations within and outside. As I talk to you, we have established linkages and relationships with institutions in five continents of the world which I believe is an encouragement for those that want to be part of us. As a result of the terms of the collaboration on staff and students exchange, our collaborations are very active. For instance, one of the collaborations we have with an institution from the University of Colorado in America has led to the establishment of Anchor Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistic and Data Science in our university. As of the time of establishing the laboratory, it was the third of such in the whole of West Africa. It has been helping to train people in the industry in data analysis, interpretation and application. Another one is our collaboration with the Centre for Space Physics from India. Currently, we have a laboratory devoted to that.
We conduct research and atmospheric information. Such information and data will help in planning flights. We have a situation where flights are cancelled because of bad weather. The radio station also needs weather forecasts and atmospheric information for the propagation of their waves. So people who need such data can come to the centre. We have facilities for the collection of data for that purpose. We also have collaboration with New Horizon System, which is for IT training of our students that will ensure that all our students from 100 to 400 level are empowered, relevant and competitive by the time they graduate. There is a centre devoted to that purpose that all our students go through for IT certification that will further help them to project and deepen their training.

How do you get funding aside from school fees?

Mainly as a private university, most of our capital projects are supported by the proprietor, Deeper Christian Life Ministry. We also have support through collaborations and research. For instance, we have some research fellows on our campus who are given research grants. Based on such research grants, activities are enhanced, and equipment is brought to the university, which has impacted the training of our students.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions were forced to close down. How was your university able to scale through?

Coincidentally when the problem came up in 2020, we had concluded the first semester of the 2019/2020 academic session. We were just planning to resume the second semester when the lockdown was enforced. Anchor University is ICT-driven. Even before the Covid-19 issue, we had started virtual lectures and interacting with our students in a skeletal way. So when the pandemic came up, we went into full-blown of our virtual classes. We interacted with parents, students and we had internal training of staff to be able to meet up. So our second semester was fully held virtually. We also had our examinations. The aspect we couldn’t do virtually had to do with practicals. When the lockdown was relaxed, we brought back our students, but we had to stagger them and observe the COVID-19 protocols.

What is the students’ population?

Currently, we are about 600. We recently graduated 63 pioneer students, out of which 23 had first-class honours.

What efforts are you making to make graduates globally relevant?

The OBE concept that we drive is in line with the mission of the university that will ensure relevant knowledge, skill and attitude that will help them be self-reliant. As a university that believes in a blend of character and learning, we also impact them godliness that will make them have integrity wherever they go eventually in life. And for those who want to continue in academia, when they do research, they should be competitive. That is the kind of training we give here, and we have seen some elements of success in imparting relevant knowledge that we give here. Just last year, two of our students participated in the science and technology innovation competition that took place. From about 511 submissions received from all tertiary institutions in Nigeria, two of our students were considered. At the end of the day, the best six institutions in Nigeria were selected, and they went for the grand finale at Bayelsa State, and Anchor university was one of the top six. That means the knowledge we have imparted in them assisted them in thinking deeply and bringing on board competitive ideas. We believe that our products are very proud of the quality of training they got here.

There’s a value system crisis. What’s the reason, and how can that be tackled?

The belief of the founding fathers is to checkmate on character degradation you see among the youths and to be able to do that. Our motto is ‘character, competence and courage’. Whatever one wants to do and become in life, the character is very important. If somebody is charismatic, knowledgeable, and competent but doesn’t have good character, he will use the bad character to rub off his competence. In Anchor university, one of the things we do, apart from very serious academics, involvement and engagement of our staff and students, we also create time to meet and listen to the words of God because it is the basis of character transformation. On a weekly basis, we have the opportunity to go through that. There is a compulsory course that we also run, Total Man Concept, that every student must offer. In that course, the totality of a man is addressed. They are exposed to the spiritual aspect, physical and social aspects, how to develop and carry yourself with impact and influence your environment.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate is about 33 per cent. What’s the university doing to curb the scourge?

One of the challenges of unemployment in Nigeria is the issue of improper training of graduates. If I relate it to graduates of universities, the general belief that when you graduate, you must look for a job, that mentality has led to unemployment. But with the OBE, when well driven, people will look for you. If an organisation needs to engage only five graduates and 400 show up, they give them a written test before the oral presentation. So for somebody who is well baked, he will compete with others, knowing that he is well equipped and has been taught all the relevant skills for employment. Today, we have the quantitative and qualitative skills which most employers look for. So if you can meet both requirements, of course, you will be able to stand out. The way forward is for our institutions to drive Outcome-Based Education (OBE), where the real skills are taught. We have the soft and hard skills that would prepare the products in a way that they would be ready for the job market. For instance, in Anchor University, before convocation, some of our students who graduated were called back where they did internships. So they started working even before they were mobilised for NYSC. If they didn’t get something out of this place, I am not sure the organisation will want to retain them. Our tertiary institutions should seriously follow the outcome-based education concept.