Afe Babalola Raises Alarm over Proliferation of Substandard Varsities
Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
Legal luminary, Afe Babalola (SAN) yesterday raised the alarm that the current trend of continuing mass approval of universities by the Nigerian authorities, without consideration for quality and infrastructure, will soon spell doom for the nation, if not stopped.
He gave the warning while speaking at the High Impact Research and Journal Advancement Workshop, organised by the Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy.
Babalola recalled that during the era of Prof. Peter Okebukola, as the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), utmost excellence and national service was the determining factor.
Babalola said under his leadership, the NUC developed a reputation for careful, meticulous and painstaking approval processes for the establishment of universities.
“Not only was the visitation and accreditation process rigorous, it was also impossible for anyone to obtain approval to commence degree programmes, especially in Medicine, Engineering and Law, especially in the first few years of establishing a university.
“But what do we have today? Mass approval of mushroom and substandard universities, with some, lacking in even the basic learning facilities and infrastructure. As a result of this ‘anything goes syndrome’ approach to university licensing and accreditation, NUC’s ability to ensure quality control, and to stamp out substandard institutions, have been seriously compromised.
“We currently have over 270 universities in Nigeria, and proposals for the approval of another 200 new institutions are currently under consideration by the National Assembly”, he said.
According to him, the focus now seems to be on quantity, not quality, as the authorities continue licensing more universities without adequate plans for monitoring their standards.
“The end result is a rapid decline, and rot of our educational system, and in the quality of our graduates. What we need is quality education, because poor education is worse than illiteracy”.
According to Babalola, Nigeria can not seriously speak of advancing sustainable development, through high impact research, unless it first addresses the menace of proliferation of substandard universities.
“ Perhaps many do not know, it is these mushroom and substandard universities that later go out to recruit substandard faculty officers, who conduct substandard research that are printed by substandard publishers, thereby resulting in substandard and half-baked graduates that have little or nothing to offer to national development.
“ If we are really serious about accelerating national development, through research, the starting point will be for the NUC to return to the era of placing quality over quantity,” he noted.
Okebukola, in his lecture titled: ‘’Promoting High-Impact Research Publications for Sustainable National Development in Nigeria: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Directions’’, called for increased partnership with international researchers, in order to boost the ranking of the institution.
This, according to him, would attract international bodies to ABUAD, and make them surpass other universities in the country.
Also speaking, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Prof. Damilola Olawuyi, explained that the purpose of the workshop was to instill an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset in the approach to research, publication and journal management.
He noted that the Journal, which started in 2013 was an accredited Journal by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), a member of the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE), UK, the Directory of Open Access Journalists (DOAJ) and the African Journals Online (AJOL).
Earlier in a welcome address, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, said the workshop was made possible through the generous support of Electronic Information For Libraries, (EIFL)
The VC assured that participants would be equipped with practical knowledge on managing and sustaining Open Access Journals, Ethical Research Publishing, and Improving the Visibility and Credibility of African Academic Outputs.
