A distinguished professor, Flour Mills Food research center, department of Food Technology, University of Ibadan, Ogugua Charles Aworh has identified the Lack of International accreditation of the academic programmes of Nigerian universities as responsible for their global ranking and their competitiveness in seeking research grants and other support from international agencies and grant-awarding foundations and donor organisations.
Aworh made this known while delivering the George Coumantaros Memorial lecture titled ‘Strengthening Industry-Academic partnership for Quality teaching, research and development in the Nigerian University system organised by Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc in collaboration with the University of Ibadan.
He said it is also imperative for the universities to pay attention to international accreditation of their academic programmes and not just consider the mandatory accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC) as all that they require.
According to Aworh, “If Nigerian universities want to be global players that command the respect of the international academic community, then they must subject their academic programmes to scrutiny by international accreditation bodies and make the necessary budgetary provisions for accreditation visits by such bodies”.
He observes that International accreditation is an important quality assurance requirement, adding that Universities seek international accreditation of their academic programmes to enhance their global competitiveness and ranking.
The George Coumantaros distinguished professor observes that at the root of the poor state of Nigerian universities with respect to infrastructure, teaching and research facilities is underfunding.
“The irony of it all is that in the midst of declining resources, rather than consolidating, new universities are being established and new programmes created in existing universities” he said.
“The low ranking of the University of Ibadan and other Nigerian universities, especially the First-generation universities, should be of serious national concern. This is clearly not what the founding fathers and our heroes past laboured for and it is an urgent challenge that the University of Ibadan must face squarely”.
Aworh opines that strong Industry-academia partnerships are the way to go as the partnership is not only not mutually beneficial but synergistic.
“Strong industry-university partnerships provide huge benefits for universities such as Financial support for the teaching, research and community service missions of universities; Broadening and enriching the experience of staff and students; Increasing employment opportunities for students; Assisting in identifying significant, relevant problems that can be addressed through research”. Aworh said.
John G. Coumantaros, Chairman, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc in his address at the event said the motive of the George Coumantaros Distinguished Professorship was aside from strengthening the linkages between academia and industry, Flour Mills Food Research Centre would conduct studies into traditional food processing technologies while developing new food products from affordable, locally cultivated crops.
Coumantaros who was represented by Olalekan Saliu, Non Executive Director, FMN said Nigeria needs newer and fresher ideas on sustainable food production methods especially as our population continues to increase. Perhaps, the answers truly lie with a stronger and more purposeful partnership with Academia.
He further stated that the partnership between Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc and Corteva Agriscience in 2018 is to introduce new and exciting seed production techniques that will help develop the Maize hybrid seed market in Nigeria.
“This initiative is expected to drastically turnaround the current national average maize yield of about 1.5 metric tons per hectare by over 100% in the next five years”, Coumantaros said.
KELECHI EWUZIE
