Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - UI is still unsurpassed — Adewole [nigerian university education]

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On 12/10/12, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: T.O.S <
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> **
>
>
> UI is still unsurpassed --Adewole
> Written by Tayo Lewis
>
> -
>
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>
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> раскрутка сайтов <http://joomla-master.org/>*There is a renewal going on in
> Nigeria's oldest university. Editor, Tribune Education, Tayo Lewis spoke
> with the man on the driver's seat, Professor Isaac Adewole. Excerpts.*
>
>
>
> *[image: Professor Isaac Adewole, Vice Chancellor, University of
> Ibadan.]THE
> University of Ibadan is known to be the first university in Nigeria. Would
> you rate it as still being the best or one of the best?*
> I am particularly amazed at the question because of a number of reasons.
> Even among Vice Chancellors, I don't think there is any doubt or dispute as
> to the best university in the country. Just as there is no doubt as to the
> first, the first is an accident of history, but the best is a product of
> what I will call a collective effort, conscious determination to retain the
> position. And one must praise the courage determination and contributions,
> the collective effort of all those that had worked and are still working in
> the institution. When you look at the human resources available in UI, no
> other institution in this country can match it, the number of professors,
> Associate professors and readers; senior lecturers in the academics,
> teaching and non-teaching staff, technical staff, we are simply
> unparalleled. The number of teachers with Ph.D, the number of teachers in
> our college of medicine and Vet with fellowships, UI has been wonderful.
> Recently, we were even adjudged the best research university in the country
> and the fifth in Africa.
> So, when you are looking at those things that really make a university, UI
> is it. And as at the last time, we have produced over 40 per cent of
> Vice-Chancellors in Nigeria. It is either the VC trained in Ibadan or was
> trained by someone who trained in Ibadan.
>
> *During the tenure of the last VC, people had thought because he was in
> engineering, he went all over building structures and constructing roads,
> but you came in and seems to have continued in that trend despite the fact
> that you are from the medical background.*
> I think that is also vintage University of Ibadan. The kind of training,
> the background, I think drives us. Let me also tell you that whatever we do
> in UI is not a one-man show, but a collective effort. I had a three month
> gap between appointment and assumption, during when we developed a
> strategic plan, and in the recent time that would be the first time a VC
> would develop a strategic plan for his tenure. It was discussed
> University-wide, approved by Senate and Council, and dutifully, we have
> continued to implement that plan. I think we must also recognise that the
> physician is a builder. By our training and background, there is no other
> builder, no other strategist than a physician.
>
> *Can you tell us some of the additions, since you came in?*
> The first thing is the continuation of the project we inherited because we
> do not believe in an abandoned project. We also want to teach this country
> a lesson, that when you have a new leadership, you do not have to discard
> whatever was inherited. So, we continued what we inherited, completed them
> and started ours. We concentrated on three main areas which are energy,
> food and health. When you look at what we are doing, they are all keyed
> into those three areas but we are all moving in one direction; that is
> promotion of academic excellence, and I think that is the ultimate goal
> and that is why we set up the quality assurance unit for both research and
> teaching. Whatever we do in health, education, agric, technology, they are
> all design to promote academic excellence. In terms of specific, we have
> resuscitated teaching and the research farm that was moribund for years. We
> moved the piggery section from almost dead, now we have over 400 pigs. We
> have resuscitated the Dairy Farm, and we now have exotic cows on the
> teaching and research farm. When you move to the farm section, we have
> started what I will call the multiplication of the super sweet corn.
>
> *The specie that we import in cans?*
> Oh yes! In UI now, we have super sweet corns and once we are able to move
> beyond multiplication, we already have a high demand, Tantalizers wants to
> partner with us and I'm sure if you more around, you get some. We've
> established sales outlet for vegetable products and one for animal. But
> what is of particular strategy is the development of the RET corridor
> project which we have embarked on. The R stands for Research, E is for
> Economic and T for Tourism, because there is a corridor in UI that
> stretches from Barth road to Oba dam. On one end of it, we are doing the
> channelisation, where the canal is being done. At the other end of it, we
> are developing a Department of Agriculture and Fishery Management by the
> river.
>
> We are going to have not less than 20 fish ponds. We want to multiply
> fingerlings and produce fingerlings and fish for Nigeria. And one of the
> things we want to do that would enable us have a multiplying effect is to
> breed fingerlings at subsidised price to the community. We want to make
> sure that in the next five years, we make a positive impact on energy,
> particularly protein. We want to saturate Nigeria with energy foods. We are
> concentrating on beef; fish and eggs.
>
> *Last year, you had a challenge during the August 26 flood.*
> We have taken care of that, that's why we are doing the channelisation. we
> are having fish ponds on both sides, one will be the commercial section and
> there would also be a teaching and research section, where our students can
> learn. When we move from there, we move to the Zoo Garden. We are upgrading
> the Zoo, the first major renovation we've had since it was established by
> Bob Goldie. And then, we will turn around the Oba Dam to a tourist centre.
> Those are our major projects, but there are few others. We now have a
> sawmill, we are developing a fire station in UI, on the College of Medicine
> side, we are elevating the library projects to two floors. We are building
> an institution for Maternal and Child Health for the nation. In order to
> make an impact on the poor maternal situation in
>
> Nigeria, we are setting up an Institute for Infectious Diseases in Africa,
> which will be the hub. We are also setting up a Cancer Research Institute.
> We are moving over to this side, putting life into the Pan-African
> University. We are admitting the first set of students and about 44 of
> them, and we hope that by January, it will take off. So overall, we will
> continue with the development, apart from making sure that we renovate the
> lecture theatres. We are fortunate to have endowment by the Chairman of
> Council, 350-seater auditorium. We are giving the physical planning to the
> Department of Urban and Regional Planning. They are building for the first
> time in 30 years though its at Ajibode. We are moving the Distance Learning
> Centre to Ajibode. We are going to set up the business school, which has
> taken off and it also will be at Ajibode. In addition to that within the
> complex, we are also going to have a Postgraduate Research Library.
>
> *You have talked of a lot about infrastructure, how have you been managing
> human resource in the institution?*
> I've told you that UI is not short of human resource, in fact, we are the
> most endowed in terms of human resource. But then, we are also not losing
> sight that as an old institution, we have a lot of weight to shed, in terms
> of senior people would leave one way or the other. That is why we initiated
> the automatic scholarship programme for First-Class products. All our First
> Class products will automatically receive a postgraduate scholarship, to
> encourage them to stay back so that we can then build the next cadre of
> people who will take over from the senior ones. We are also not stopping at
> that, we have developing a post-door fellowship programme. It's are old
> programme in the university but died because there was no money to fund it.
>
> *How does it work?*
> The post-door would enable those with Ph.D to do research for about six
> months to one year, when they finish. They are going to be doing nothing
> but research.
>
> Developed universities all over the world have that layer that enables
> people to settle down and do cutting edge research. You would not burden
> them with teaching and so on, all they do is research. We are bringing that
> back. And that will, in fact, increase the quality of work that we do as an
> institution. We are also training people doing exchange programmes. As at
> the last time, we have over 150 MoUs. So, we are also doing faculty and
> staff exchange with many universities so that we do not just encourage
> in-breeding. Last year, we encourage each faculty to invite an
> international scholar to work with them within a period of six month to a
> year, next year, we will extend it to department. So that if there is an
> international scholar, bring that facilitator and let him or her work in
> Ibadan. And by so doing, we cross fertilise ideas.
>
> *How has it been with the unions?*
> This is like asking how I have been managing myself because I am a
> unionist. I am one of them, we speak the same language and I think it is
> one luck I have, that we understand one another. And to me, there is good
> bonding. It does not imply we don't have our moments of disagreement but we
> all recognise that even after a war, people still have to sit and talk, so,
> why not talk rather than go to war. So, we have been talking and we will
> keep on talking.
>
> *People were excited to see an Isaac in the mosque when you attended the
> mosque service during the last convocation ceremonies?*
> Anybody who wears UI, must not really have an official religion. And so, I
> must draw a line between my role as a Vice Chancellor and personal
> affiliation. My roles as the VC are to blend with everybody. Even if you
> have no religion, I have to interact with you. But then, I am a Christian
> and I don't pretend being one.
>
> *You have a very large body of Alumni. Is it every time you agree with the
> members of Alumni body on what to do and how to do it?*
> Certainly No! I also think we have not tapped into the alumni port
> maximally, but we are trying. At the last count, we had over 180,000 in the
> alumni database but not all of them will support but we are fortunate to
> have many of them who do. People like Ohiweire, Onosode; Omolayole,, Olola
> There are quite a number of them.
>
> And at the last convocation, Mr Itsueli was here with his wife, as the
> special guest, and a number of them. And we are also talking to quite a
> number of other ones.
>
> I think we are fortunate. When we do well, they are happy, and that is the
> incentive that encourages them to think of what can they do for this
> institution.
>
> *During the last convocation ceremonies, you specially honoured some
> eminent foundation students?*
> Actually, that was not the original plan, but the outcome reflected the
> collective vision of an institution that believes in recognising the roots.
> We voted and picked the top four. And when we looked at the top four, they
> happened to be all foundation students. People even nominated about 10
> people or thereabout.
>
> *But what was supposed to be the motive for this honour?*
> Over the years, the university made it a point of duty to recognise those
> who deserve to be honoured and we have done that over time but not
> necessarily every year. I could remember a time, when for four years, we
> had nobody to be honoured. Because the institution has a strict regulation.
> We do not honour those who are in service. We want them to have completed
> service so that we can fully reflect on what they have done over time. We
> also don't recognise young people, because they have not attained their
> maximum potentials. We also do not recognise people of questionable
> character because we don't want to be drawn into any controversy. We will
> look at what you have done, how much you have impacted on other human
> beings. We like to know if you are a role model. Can we showcase you as an
> individual? We look at this in totality and then we score. We gave it to
> the top four and those top four happened again by some coincidence to be
> four foundation students who got admission into UI in 1948, and are still
> alive.
>
>
> *Who inspired you into academics?*
> Very interesting. I did not set out to be in academia, but I have some role
> models; people like Professor Adetokunbo Lucas; Professors Olore, Akande,
> Professor Akinkugbe and they have all contributed a lot. One of them, to
> me, became a turning point, and that was my first two weeks in Royal
> Hammersmith Hospital. We had this patient, a pregnant woman who was passing
> blood in her urine. They did all kinds of test at the hospital but could
> not detect what was wrong. I happened to recognise that Professor Akinkugbe
> wrote a paper about the challenges which blacks abnormal haemoglobin could
> face. And one of their presentations was passing blood in urine. I then
> went back to the library to read it up, and the next morning I said "the
> patient who came yesterday probably had this problem. Can we probably check
> the haemoglobin status?" They did not believe me because they said 'the
> fellow from Nigeria suggested this'. I was amazed but behold when that
> individual was investigated, she had an abnormal haemoglobin. And of
> course, i worked under a first class Clinician.
>
> *What is your relationship with the students?*
> With the student union, excellent because I see them as my children but not
> that the relationship does not have hiccups. Recently, they even crossed
> the line and I got angry but we settled it. They threatened to go on strike
> over electricity and I told them they cannot do that without informing the
> authority first. But by and large, the relationship is cordial.
>
> *Recently, a coalition of labour groups threaten to go on strike, have you
> started talking?*
> Although we have started talking, it is beyond us. Government signed an
> agreement with the unions three years ago and have not fully honoured it
> which I think it's unfortunate. I suspect that there are some realisations
> that the implementation might be tougher than expected. And I also thought
> that what government ought to have done was to have called them back and
> talk. But having waited for three years, to me, it is an error of
> judgement. Secondly by the content of the agreement which government signed
> with them, government also indicated that they would they would renegotiate
> the agreement when the old has not even been implemented and its due for
> renegotiation. So, there is an error. I think government must also have an
> in-built mechanism to educate themselves about principle of collective
> bargaining and negotiation. They also have a lot to learn
>
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