By Chijioke Okoronkwo
Scientists advise that appropriate authorities should encourage initiatives that will boost research works in Nigerian universities.
They observe that enhanced research works which empirical findings are put in the public domain will boost the global rating of Nigerian universities and industrial development of the country.
They note that although funding has been the bane of research in Nigerian universities, relevant government organisations and private sectors should cooperate in funding research activities in various institutions.
In the light of this observation, Prof. Peter Onwualu, former Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council, suggested the setting-up of a research grant scheme for universities.
“Aside funding, there is a need to create the enabling environment such as providing state-of- the-art laboratories, libraries and access to internet, among others.
“Once the enabling environment is there, the next thing will be to have a very good research grant scheme system.
“Currently, it appears it is only the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) that is funding research all over the country.
“There should be a review of research funding system; it should be reinforced so that researchers could have access to research funds.
“However TEFund is really doing well, what the fund is doing is very encouraging; before now, we did not have any of such,’’ he said.
In addition, Onwualu said that universities should have their own internal mechanisms for managing research works.
He, nonetheless, admitted that some vice-chancellors were already working on how research works could be managed in their institutions.
“In some universities, we now have research management units directly under the vice-chancellors’ offices and within that, they manage researches in all departments,’’ he said.
Onwualu also challenged universities to channel their research works towards solving the needs of respective industries.
“Every research, whether thesis or otherwise, must be industry-oriented. By so doing, industrialists will be interested in such research work,’’ he observed.
He said that the government had contributed a lot to research through TETFund and advised the private sector to do same.
He noted that Nigerian universities would rank among the best in the world in due course if more efforts and funding were put into research works.
In his view, Prof. Julius Okogie, the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), blamed the poor rating of Nigerian universities on the dearth of their research findings on the internet.
According to him, Nigerian universities are at par with renowned universities around the world in terms of academics and research but their findings are not available online.
“The people that do these rankings do not visit university campuses; they get their data on the internet but most of our research findings are not there.
“What makes you a professor is that people have read your works somewhere else.
“We have to use Information Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance our learning; our children have all the ICT they need but they are not using it to enhance themselves.’’
Okojie said that for Nigeria to achieve the objectives of the Vision 20:2020, there must be appreciable advancement in ICT usage and applications.
He observed that although the university standard had been on the decline in the last two decades, some Nigeria’s universities can still match renowned universities elsewhere in knowledge and research works.
“University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which were among the global best in the 1970s, are now struggling to find places among the best 10 in Africa,’’ he observed.
Sharing similar sentiments, Prof. Michael Faborode, the Secretary-General, Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, said that paucity of publications had contributed to the poor grading of Nigerian universities.
He, however, expressed optimism that the efforts of the Federal Government, through NUC and TETFund to promote research and publication of journals, would enhance the ranking of the universities.
Faborode expressed the desire of the association to promote the research output of Nigerian universities and scale-up their ranking in Africa and the world.
Further to this, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, said that the fund had created a new department to produce excellence in academic research and development in higher institutions.
“ TETFund Board of Trustees has approved a five-year vision for the fund–from 2014 to 2019– to deepen our focus on academic content, quality and excellence.
“As part of this vision, a new department of research and development and centres of excellence have been created to institutionalise research and development in tertiary institutions.
“The main responsibility of the department will be to interface between innovative research findings and industry,’’ he said.
All in all, stakeholders opine that research works of Nigerian universities will attract the attention of the world if there are proper funding, publications and a good synergy between the universities and industries.(NANFeatures)