UNIVERSITY LECTURERS SUGGEST WAYS TO REPOSITION THE NATION’S IVORY TOWERS

Nigerian Universities have not been performing well in global ranking for some years now, as none of them is among the first one thousand universities according to the ranking released sometime ago.

In the sixties and part of seventies, Nigerian universities were competing favorably with those in advanced countries, in terms of global ranking, making them to be highly sought after by both Nigerians and Foreigners.

But the situation at the moment calls for worry as none of the nation’s universities is ranked among the first one thousand across the world.

This poor performance has been blamed on a combination of factors.

Some University Lecturers in Anambra State, during separate interviews with Radio Nigeria on the poor ranking, suggested what could be done to improve on the development.

One of them is Professor A.U Nnonyelu, who blamed the problem on Military interference in politics.

In the view of another Lecturer, Professor Dennis Aribdor, inadequate funding of education in Nigeria is a huge contributory factor to poor rating.

For Professor Emma Ezenwaji, infrastructural   deficit and decay of existing ones coupled with acute shortage of manpower are also contributing to the problem.

Other reasons for poor rating of Nigerian Universities according to them is  thesystem of admitting students into universities, quota system and undue political interference in the running  of universities, as well as patronage  of foreign  academics by State and Federal Government’s at the expense of those  with same  qualifications in the country.

The dons were however happy that despite the general poor rating, some Nigerians students were making waves abroad and making the country proud.

Be that as it may, they called on the government to demonstrate greater commitment to education in order to reverse the trend.

The University lecturers were optimistic that when all identified problems were sufficiently taken care of, it would not be long before Nigeria bounced back to global reckoning, even better than she was in the post- Independence period.

ALFRED AJAYI