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The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) recently launched a N14billion development fund to consciously address perennial problems of funding....
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) recently launched a N14billion development fund to consciously address perennial problems of funding in the institution. The focus and commitment of the university community on this project is a good lesson on self-reliance.
It is believed that the fund aimed at facilitating research and economic development would enable the university undertake some business activities that would generate steady profit and sustain the university perpetually.
This is one action that is most commendable because it goes a long way to demonstrate that the academic sector can truly be productive even in Nigeria. It also shows good understanding of the fact that government cannot adequately settle all the bills of all the institutions it had established.
Another area worth commending is the practical commitment of the officers of the institution. While all the lecturers are expected to contribute a percentage of their salaries to the fund, the Vice-Chancellor himself had endorsed the contribution of N.6m from his dues over a year period.
We have no doubt that other stakeholders within the university and even the alumni would have no choice but to follow this worthy example and become part of the success story that is bound to follow this kind commitment.
In fact, the involvement of the university community would also play another important role of making everyone see the school and its programmes as their own and erase fraud and apathy that often frustrate lofty programmes in some universities.
It is also heart-warming that the fund is not intended to be used on some projects, that may not be self-sustaining, but would be invested first on research, that is fast becoming easily dispensable in the nation's universities. Similarly, the buying of blue-chip stocks would also ensure that the school overcomes embarrassing lack.
What this would do for the institution is best imagined. The institution would once again become truly academic, where research and scholarship would become the focus. The university would not admit more than it could cater for, because the money should be able to maintain facilities and support professionalism.
That is why we salute the wisdom of the leadership and the courage to embark on this ambitious launch. In fact, UNN has once again shown class and taken the first place in designing ingenious way of dealing with the funding problems in public universities in Nigeria.
We believe that the concept will work and urge other universities to take a queue with a view to ending the spectre of disgrace in some of the nation's universities. As a place of learning and character-moulding, our universities cannot afford to be perennially helpless or function below par.
The problem of funding in public universities in Nigeria is real. But the fact that government cannot fully fund the schools has also become very real. Yet, providing education in the country had become a very expensive business.
Therefore, schools that must survive and continue to award degrees worth the paper that carry the award, must seek funds outside of government sources. It was this realisation that pushed nearly every institution to run part-time programmes and operate multiple campuses, even when they were least equipped to do so.
Of course, the result was disaster. Standards were compromised, while scholarship was the last consideration on the priority list. But the universities commission outlawed the practice and threw the universities back into familiar terrain of dire financial condition.
But while many universities may have thrown in the towel, UNN has come up with a system that is devoid of the things that would compromise academic excellence. That is why we say bravo UNN and may God bless your every effort.