From one controversy to the other, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, is steadily progressing in error in the discharge of his duties. He outlawed the universities, both public and privately-owned, from conducting post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations in May. But it is just as well that his ill-advised decision has provoked outrage from stakeholders. He should not erode whatever tradition or academic culture that may be left in our troubled universities.
While declaring open the 2016 combined policy meeting on admission to tertiary institutions in the country, the minister said that since the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board was competent in conducting the computer-based test, there was no need for students to sit another examination to get admission. Therefore, he declared, “Our universities shouldn’t be conducting another examination.”
But it is cheering that stakeholders such as the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Academic Staff Union of Universities, private university proprietors and academics have chafed at the minister’s position. At issue is the autonomy of universities – the right to admit their students, using whatever criteria they consider necessary. This attribute and academic freedom stand universities out from other institutions globally right from their medieval cradle.
The post-UTME test is a child of necessity, which universities adopted in 2004 when it became obvious that there was often a lack of correlation between candidates’ high scores in matriculation exams and their performance at screening sessions.
From one howler to the other, the minister seems to be showing that he is a misfit in that office. Besides, he is deepening the growing belief in some quarters that he is just playing a sectional or political card with a university admission policy that promotes mediocrity, and in favour of a section of the country. This chicanery has become too apparent, downright nihilistic and should be dropped in the trash can. Earlier in the year, he had unilaterally sacked the governing councils of 13 universities and their vice-chancellors, only for President Muhammadu Buhari to apologise a few days later following public outrage, and the realisation that the rules had been brazenly breached.
The minister should appreciate this fact: universities are sui generis – “insulated from the hot and cold winds of politics,” – as encapsulated in the Asbby Commission Report on Post-School Certificate and Higher Education in Nigeria, 1960. Drawing afflatus from this, the National Policy on Education 2004 views autonomy and academic freedom as critical for academic success, hence, it declared that “the internal organisation and administration of each university will be left to the university.” This is why each university has a council and senate that oversee its affairs.
Therefore, our universities should be self-governing institutions like similar institutions in the Western world over the selection of candidates they admit, what to teach, research, recruitment of academics and graduation of students. That government provides funding for universities does not confer the right on it to undermine their essence as often experienced here.
In the United Kingdom, where universities rake in money through high tuition charges, the government still funds them heavily without meddling in their affairs. In 2015, for instance, it disbursed £11.1 billion, which it increased to £12.1 billion in 2016 through the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Oxford University received £161.2 million from the pool for 2015/2016, comprising £19.3 million for teaching and £139 million for research. Cambridge University collected £144.2 million, while Imperial College, London, got £127 million. Similar strong government financial support to universities in the United States is evident in the $76 billion which Washington doled out to them in 2013.
Nigeria’s federal structure makes it imperative for education to be on the Concurrent Legislative List; a reality that has spawned 42 state universities and 61 privately owned ones. As a result, they should not be dictated to by Abuja on how to pursue their core mandates. Government’s duty, whether federal or state, is to ensure that universities in their domain conform to broad regulatory framework that guarantees academic excellence in the country’s 143 universities.
A former chairman of the Governing Council, University of Lagos, Afe Babalola, and also a private university proprietor, was spot on when he described Adamu’s directive as “nothing but a calamitous mistake, which poses danger, and irreversible adverse effect on the quality of education in this country.” We have always seen JAMB, which conducts the UTME as otiose; therefore, it should be scrapped. At present, it is just a clearing house, according to Ayodeji Olukoju, a professor of history and a former vice-chancellor of Caleb University, Imota.
Consequently, the universities must defend their autonomy by sieving the quality of candidates they admit. As the President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said, JAMB cannot take away the statutory right of every university to decide this. He said, “Universities determine what would be the cut-off for each programme they run and the senate sets that score.”
This is a categorical imperative the Secretary-General, AVCNU, Michael Faborode, and Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Ibrahim Garba, have also spoken in defence. The quality of a degree of any university and its reputation are partly dependent on this process. But the reckless abuse of the system such as Adamu’s misguided action, explains why our universities have plumbed the depths of decadence, not reckoned with globally in the league of universities.
The culture of acquiescence is alien to the university system. Therefore, stakeholders, especially ASUU, should rise up and challenge Adamu’s reckless desecration of university values. He should be prevented from turning our ivory towers into glorified secondary schools. Adamu, enough is enough.
