Critiques of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions of learning, particularly the universities have pointed out myriad ways the Ivory Towers are apparently failing in their function as intellectual talent pools meant to generate both basic and applied knowledge to drive social and industrial innovations.
These criticisms have ranged from allusions to the obsolete method through which lecturers disseminate knowledge and the outdated content that some lecturers boast of and want to force down the throats of their hapless students. Some lecturers have been reported as saying their lecture notes were as old as 25 years in an era of rapid changes.
Examples from developed market economies such Germany, show there is close relationship between universities or research centres and industry, which accounts for the fact that German companies are among the most innovative in the Eurozone. This is lacking in Nigeria. There is a glaring disconnect between industry and academia.
“There is no alignment between industries and university research output. For a university research to be of value to industries, it must meet their industrial need by looking at problems industries want to solve,” Muda Yusuf, director general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said on a telephone interview.
A cross section of responses harvested from chief executive officers and production managers’ surveyed by BusinessDay show that universities’ approach to research is the problem. They strongly suggested schools should ensure that the industries are consulted first before any research is carried out.
Yusuf also stated that some industries are currently contributing to endowment of chair for particular courses. “At the Chamber we support an endowment of chairs for entrepreneurship which is now an annual scholarship,” he said.
Some university dons, whilst acknowledging the need for improvement in both the quantity and quality of research contend that the situation is not as bad some make it look.
An urgent paradigm shift is needed to reconnect industry to academia. At the University of Lagos’ Centre for Research and Innovation, a new trend is emerging.
“There is definitely some level of disconnect between town and gown, industry and academia and we want to bridge this gap. When both parties sit in their respective space and complain, it will not help. We have started by engaging with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), since they form the engine of any consumer driven economy” said Wellington Oyibo, director Centre for Research and Innovation, University of Lagos.
Oyibo emphasised that “the University of Lagos is gradually evolving into a research based university. The ratio of undergraduate to post-graduate students now is 50:50. This two and half year old Centre for Research and Innovation is testimony that we are indeed committed to changing the narrative by bringing research to bear on industry innovation. The Centre owes its establishment to Rahmon Ade Bello, the current vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos and a professor of Chemical Engineering.”
The University of Lagos is particularly strategic because it is located at the heart of Nigeria’s largest commercial hub. One of the biggest problems in addition to funding is the absence of governing documents such as Intellectual Property policy and research and innovation policy.
“At UniLag we just developed such documents and no university in Nigeria possesses such a document. All we need is paradigm shift. We are setting up innovation hubs on campus because we believe our students and teachers are future CEOs. We are also talking to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN)” he surmised.
Quality research is cost intensive as well, funding therefore is a critical component of research and innovation. People familiar with the matter say overall, Nigeria has suffered from leadership that paid only lip service to the contribution of science to national development.
“Over the past five years more than N500 million has been spent on scholarly research work. In 2012 and 2014, the value of university funded faculty research was about N100 million with support from the Tertiary Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Central Research Committee (CRC) set-up by the University Senate” Babajide Alo, deputy vice-chancellor academics and research stated in “Research Report, 2012 – 2014” published by the University of Lagos.
The CRC provided the research grants through internally generated revenue and worked closely with the Academic Planning Unit of the University to monitor and evaluate progress of research project.
Alo added “The University’s CRC funds research at the mini-research grant and full research grant of N1million and up to N3million respectively to enable faculty members conduct full research or generate preliminary research data that will pave way for the development of an expanded competitive research proposal.”
Other sources of in-country funding include the Lagos State Research Development Council. The aim of the LSRDC was to bridge the apparent disconnect between the society and the universities by providing research grants to universities, Scientists and lecturers to proffer solutions to national challenges.
The University of Lagos receives funding from international agencies and industry also. Research funds have been received from the National Institute of Health (NIH), Fogarty International, Google Global Impact Awards (GGIA), World Health Organisation (WHO), European Union (EU), the German Research Foundation (FDG), and Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) Geneva, among others.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
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