Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?

Gloria,

My main concern is the Nigerian higher education system, but somehow you've drawn me into a full-blown discussion of the US academy and I'm afraid this will subsume and derail the more consequential discussion of the problem of research and teaching in the Nigerian university system. Nonetheless, let me says a few things. I feel like you're mostly erecting straw men here. And your suggestion that I read books to acquaint myself with the politics of academia in the US is nothing short of arrogant presumptuousness on your part. I have spent a combined 16 year in the US academy (six as a graduate student and ten as faculty) and I have navigated the politics of tenure, promotion, and raises, and yet you're lecturing me on racism, gender, and other factors that creep into promotion decisions. Really? I don't like arguments that invoke aberrations and insidious variables to deny the broader system, which in this case is the primacy of meritocracy and productivity, however mediated by idiosyncratic factors they may be, in promotion and pay raise decisions.

Let me answer some of your points:

"Partly false. Your current salary is also due to the historical pay structure of your campus, campus culture,
 student attendance, affordability from the perspective of the administration,  administrative greed, the time you were hired,
 divide and rule politics, institutional rivalry etc.  By the way, Ivy Leagues sometimes pay less than other universities."

I was talking about raises, not historical pay disparities. Historical pay disparities are real and can be located in the historical factors you outlined. In this respect the academia merely mirrors the larger society, where historically gender and race disparities have persisted. That said, and focusing on annual raises only, I know for a fact that in research universities, publications in a given year is a HUGE factor in determining annual pay raises, as does student supervision, advising, and teaching related activities. The other factors you outlined may play a role but they are subjective and idiosyncratic. At least you'r not disproving my point about the primacy of research accomplishments in the determination of raises or denying that such raises are individuated and not collectively determined without regard to individual faculty accomplishments.

My friend, you should jump off the "productivity" high horse.
I am sure Falola's pay is not ten million dollars.

No, not millions of dollars, but Falola gets pay raises, unless he rejects them, for publications, especially monographs. And I don't know his salary but I guarantee you that it is one of the highest among faculty in the UT system. Such a culture of rewarding productive faculty beyond the general inflation raises is both an incentive for more productivity and excellence and a disincentive for complacency. By the way I talk about productivity in both quantitative and qualitative terms. I am not talking about bean counting but weighted evaluations of research output.

Whose statistics? In any case you cannot write us off as non-existent.

The one percent figure is an extrapolation from the list of unionized AAUP branches, which is on the website of the AAUP. I am not writing you guys off. I am just saying that unionized academic labor constitutes a statistically insignificant proportion of US faculty.

I never  knew  that  modernisation was a  centralized model. And who says that  "centralized  political leadership"
under Mobutu  or  Bokassa was socialist.

Modernization, theoretical and practical, is a poster child of centralized developmental thinking and practice that was prevalent from the 1950s to the 1980s. Some were socialist in orientation, others were capitalist leaning, but they were all part of the paradigmatic belief in centralized or centrally planned development. Centrally determined arrangements, whether political, economic, or social were favored over decentralized, localized modes of development and negotiation. This thinking seeped into many other spheres--unionization, bargaining, political organizing, etc. This is the culture that produced ASUU, its manifesto and tactics. Unfortunately, in spite of the world having changed to reveal the pitfalls of centralized, blanket, national, top-down dictation, ASUU is still stuck in that era, in that outmoded culture in which uniform, undifferentiated models of compensation were the norm. I was simply situating ASUU and its dysfunction within a broader culture and epoch. 

I was not aware that such a crazy system existed. So that means  that you are on some kind of
precarious treadmill year after year. I hope you don't get demoted  if you did not
publish in a year or two. Does not work that way in my institution.
 May the gods bless Connecticut.

No, every tenure track or tenured academic gets an annual inflation raise. Let's call that the base raise. Beyond the base raise is a zone of individuated raises that are added to each faculty member's base raise to produce a final percentage. The size of the base raise is determined by budgets, inflation rate, health of endowments, state legislatures, etc and fluctuates from year to year. But the size of an individual faculty's pay raise in each year is ultimately determined by the productivity factors I outlined above. This additional margin is a function of productivity in research and teaching. It is in this zone that the political and idiosyncratic factors that you listed may come into play. But that is the reality of life not just in the States but anywhere. This would also be a reality in Nigeria no matter what system of merit pay or merit raises we adopt. But the possibility of nepotism, racism, "tribalism," sexism, and other isms intruding into a system, something that is universal, is not a reason to preserve a broken status quo, which discourages research and teaching and breeds complacency and laziness.

Completely false. My last pay raise was negotiated by the AAUP.

Your state/school's situation may be different but the bargaining I've followed in other states/school systems focused on benefits, not salaries. At any rate are you saying that your publications and scholarly productivity do not play any role in your pay raises and that your branch of the AAUP negotiated blanket raises for everyone regardless of their different publication, teaching, and service accomplishments? I suspect that you're conflating base or inflation raise with merit raise here. Perhaps other folks can chime in with their school's situation.

On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 8:15 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:

"....individuated salaries, meaning wide variations in salaries and contracts between academics on the same rank
 mainly due to different rates of production) is still prevalent and have not been subsumed by collectively
 bargained contracts."

 Partly false. Your current salary is also due to the historical pay structure of your campus, campus culture,
 student attendance, affordability from the perspective of the administration,  administrative greed, the time you were hired,
 divide and rule politics, institutional rivalry etc.  By the way, Ivy Leagues sometimes pay less than other universities.

 My friend, you should jump off the "productivity" high horse.
I am sure Falola's pay is not ten million dollars.

"The fact is unionized academic labor in the United States whether under the banner of AAUP or
otherwise represents perhaps 1 percent of US academics."

Whose statistics? In any case you cannot write us off as non-existent.

"The Cold War because in that era Soviet and Socialist influences produced modes of trade unionism
that were relevant to the economic models of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s--centralized models like
 modernization, central planning, centralized political leadership, and other top-down modes
 of sociopolitical and economic organizing."

I never  knew  that  modernisation was a  centralized model. And who says that  "centralized  political leadership"
under Mobutu  or  Bokassa was socialist.

 What exactly is  your neo - liberal  prescription for  improved work conditions?

"In both the private and public systems, pay raises are determined annually by considering
 publication, teaching, and service done by faculty members in the preceding year,
 with publication being the preeminent criterion in research schools."

I was not aware that such a crazy system existed. So that means  that you are on some kind of
precarious treadmill year after year. I hope you don't get demoted  if you did not
publish in a year or two. Does not work that way in my institution.
 May the gods bless Connecticut.

".....like most unionized tenure-track faculty in the US, their efforts focus on benefits
 (life and medical insurance, retirement funds, etc) not salaries..."

Completely false. My last pay raise was negotiated by the AAUP.

________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Moses Ebe Ochonu [meochonu@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2014 9:29 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?

Gloria,

1. The fact is unionized academic labor in the United States whether under the banner of AAUP or otherwise represents perhaps 1 percent of US academics. And I'm not including adjuncts here.

2. Unionization is spreading in some public school systems, but it is NOT NATIONAL. It is not even STATE-WIDE in most cases. Rather, the trend is largely restricted to the institutional level. Even within this decentralized, localized, institutional unionizing culture (a model that I recommended for ASUU during the debate on the last strike), individuated salaries, meaning wide variations in salaries and contracts between academics on the same rank mainly due to different rates of production) is still prevalent and have not been subsumed by collectively bargained contracts. In fact, I've been following some of the unionization effort in the New Jersey public university system and, like most unionized tenure-track faculty in the US, their efforts focus on benefits (life and medical insurance, retirement funds, etc) not salaries, which have been left alone in its flexible template, to be determined by individual contracts and by pay raises that are also based on individual productivity.

3. Yes, ASUU improved salaries nationally. That phase of the ASUU struggle was necessary and important as I pointed out. We are all thankful to ASUU for that. But as I have said many times ASUU has become a victim of and prisoner to that success in that, a) it solved one problem and created another--laziness, complacency, and disincentive for teaching and research, since both productive and unproductive academics can count on ASUU negotiated pay and protection, and b) the success of that model has become addictive and has blinded the leaders of ASUU to the need to revise tactics and goals and to discard an anachronistic system of nationally set and fixed compensation. Nimble organizations self-critique and reevaluate their struggles in view of changing industry dynamics and environments. Unfortunately ASUU still lives in the past, where the collapse of the university sector necessitated a The Cold War because in that era Soviet and Socialist influences produced modes of trade unionism that were relevant to the economic models of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s--centralized models like modernization, central planning, centralized political leadership, and other top-down modes of sociopolitical and economic organizing.national unionized effort to reverse the rot as a segue into a more holistic long term reclamation. ASUU forgot that the initial successes were transitional, or should be.

4.  I used "Cold War" as a heuristic to capture this phenomenon, which clearly shaped union culture in that era. If that model of centralized national salaries were relevant as a mainstay of unions in that era and was consistent with the ethos of that period, it is not relevant today, and unions have become decentralized and localized, with each branch working out, in cooperation with local management, arrangements and contracts that are best suited to their unique circumstances and realities. The ASUU model prevents this new, localized, more flexible, more relevant model of union organizing and bargaining.

5. Of course the US tenure system is a lifetime appointment but you work very hard to get it, by meeting the prescribed standards of publication and teaching. If you fail to obtain tenure after six years, you're gone. And after tenure is obtained, to obtain promotion to full you have to meet clearly stated research and teaching expectations. To get pay raises after that, especially real raises, you have to keep publishing. This is not the case in Nigeria, where appointment into the most junior/beginner rank of the academy is a lifetime appointment. In fact unless one wants to be promoted to the next ranks one does not even have to do anything to keep the job. There is no probationary period of pre-tenure.  Promotion in the Nigerian system is a rank thing, not a tenure thing.Then after one becomes a full professor, it really does not even pay to publish or produce scholarly work or to try to excel in teaching because you don't get any individual raises or reward, as compensation is already set nationally, hence my contention that the current national compensation system shortchanges and discourages research (and teaching) productivity and excellence.

6. You asked me a direct question and I will try to answer it. Although I teach in a private university, I know many colleagues in the public university system and I attended a public university graduate school. In both the private and public systems, pay raises are determined annually by considering publication, teaching, and service done by faculty members in the preceding year, with publication being the preeminent criterion in research schools. So, yes, like all academics in US research institutions, my books and articles count toward my pay raises. Of course, as you stated, there is wide variation. Professor Olukotun's post even referenced the fact that many US universities are actually teaching schools, where tenure and promotion are not based on research output or quality. Some state schools also have dual teaching and research tracks with different criteria for tenure and promotion for those on them. So, of course, it is possible in some US schools to move ahead and to get raises without publishing, but this is irrelevant to the Nigerian system where ALL universities are or are supposed to be research universities. Moreover, my contention that Nigerian academics, protected and subsidized by a national ASUU, are not accountable encompasses both research and teaching. I don't even know which is worse--bad/absent teaching or bad/absent research. And on a personal note, quite frankly if I worked in a system in which tenure came with the initial appointment and I would not derive any personal, individuated reward from publishing and teaching well, I am not sure that I would pursue new research, publish new stuff, or strive for teaching excellence, especially if I've managed to obtain full a professorship. So, my point is that the system of ASUU-midwifed blanket protection and guaranteed and uniform compensation is the problem, not individual Nigerian academics. Without incentives and pressures, the natural human tendency is to relax and enjoy what is already available to us.

7. Finally, you bring up racism and the fact that it plays into how established the criteria of research and teaching are implemented in determining promotion and compensation. Abuses exist in every system. Nepotism, whether based on race, ethnicity, religion, or personal relationships, exists everywhere. For that reason I'd rather not use these exceptions to discredit a system of high standards and merit-based, objective expectations that incentivizes excellence and productivity and discourages laziness and complacency. Besides, the racism argument is irrelevant to Nigeria. No system is perfect or foolproof, but the ASUU-aided mess in Nigeria could use some objective standards of research and teaching accountability on the part of academics--something that ASUU continues to oppose and undermine. I'll concede that the South Africa situation is a unique one based on the country's post-Apartheid convulsions and continuities. There are old boys white networks in the US as well, but for the most part once the expectations are defined and you meet them, you get your reward and if you don't there are remedies and mechanisms of redress. Recommending alternative higher education practices in place of the failed ASUU centralized national compensation and bargaining system does not imply that one is suggesting that the recommended practices are impervious to manipulation by prejudiced people or to idiosyncratic considerations--no human system or practice is. But this fact has not stopped us from envisioning or fighting for better systems and standards as alternatives to broken status quos.

On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 5:34 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu<mailto:emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>> wrote:

"  .....the overwhelming majority of the association's branches are not unionized
 and thus do not engage in any form of collective bargaining."

Some  US institutions have tried to discourage unionisation. These often pay the lowest
salaries. Recently, graduate students at the University of Connecticut joined the ranks of
the unionized. They complained that they did a lot of teaching and were not adequately
compensated. Unionisation is actually spreading at various levels.
http://foxct.com/2014/04/18/uconn-grad-assistants-will-be-first-in-state-to-unionize/



 The institutional branches of ASUU do not have independent bargaining rights over
compensation and remuneration, and salaries and benefits are predetermined on
 a scale agreed nationally. What an outdated, retrogressive system!

Live and let live, I say. I am happy that they have been able to improve salaries nationally.
 What's wrong with that?


" .....compensation is not subject to collective bargaining and is set by states, boards of
 regents, institutions, and, even more crucially, compensation is individuated
 and tied to productivity and not rank."

 In the US in general, you are hired on a six year tenure track, to start, and move through the ranks displaying
your publishing wares. You may be promoted to associate  professorship  after the six years.
 Add another six  years and you become a full professor.
I know of someone in a US institution who wrote not a single article after that and he is still a full professor.
He has tenure and no one will  throw him out. Besides he  has a network of friends on the
promotion committees  that engage in post-tenure evaluation  every six years, and is part of the
 old boys network. But others in the same institution continue to publish as well and may be
judged differently. Familiar scenario?Minority professors are not even judged on the same
 level playing field.

 Tell me more about the individuated compensation
system that you are pushing. I may be missing something.
Do you get a salary increase for every book  or article you publish.
Excuse my ignorance but even within this great United States
there is variation.



"The long and short of it is that the trade union template of the 1970s and 1980s, of the

 Cold War economy and academy, is inadequate for today's higher educational realities."





What does the cold war have to do with it?





"The latter are being rewarded for seniority and/or for merely fulfilling the bare minimum

 of standards required in a non-tenure system in which employment in the academic

sector is basically a lifetime appointment, barring egregious infractions."

U.S tenure is actually a lifetime appointment. I believe that there is a retirement
age in the Nigerian system. You have gotten things mixed up.
Correct me if I am wrong, though.



Prof. Gloria Emeagwali

On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 7:56 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu<mailto:emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu><mailto:emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu<mailto:emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>>> wrote:
"The current ASUU template of collective uniform bargaining and uniform reward is a drag on Nigerian higher education."

Trade unions, by definition,  rely on collective bargaining and rewards.

So is the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and other
such organizations around the world.

Why should ASUU be an exception? Last week, here in Connecticut, the AAUP got into action to pre-empt
a planned centralization of eighteen state funded institutions of higher learning. The AAUP fears that this would lead to job cuts,
layoffs and loss of academic freedom.A few years ago,  politicians in Connecticut tried to impose pay cuts and job losses
but they had to back down somewhat because of union solidarity and action.

Anti- labor/ right wing advocates always tend to blame trade unions  but these unions have been crucial in bringing
 about changes in the workplace, fairness in wages and improved conditions and rights.


"Would ASUU, moreover, allow the kind of quality control and scrutiny.............. "

 I am told that the whites, who control South African universities, systematically exclude Blacks from publishing in the 'credible' journals
they invariably control.

When a biased or racist group defines journal or book "credibility" and ties this to promotion and pay, the end result may be
total exclusion and victimization of targeted groups. That is the easiest way for a clique to dominate the university system
 and keep others out indefinitely.

South Africa is not a good role model on this issue.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali
africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net><http://africahistory.net>



________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>] On Behalf Of Moses Ebe Ochonu [meochonu@gmail.com<mailto:meochonu@gmail.com><mailto:meochonu@gmail.com<mailto:meochonu@gmail.com>>]
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 11:53 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?

"One way therefore of closing the research gap is to attach more importance to academic output based on research in the promotion of academics. This would mean for example that far less recognition will be given to the production of text books which are drawn mainly from the classroom notes of the lecturers. In the same vein, so-called journal articles which do not significantly advance the literature in the discipline or open new lines of theoretical thinking will be lowly rated by promotion committees. On the positive side, academics that undertake research and publish their findings in credible journals should be entitled to bonuses and additional pay as it is the practice in some universities in South Africa."

---Professor Olukotun,



A wonderful suggestion, one which echoes what I have been screaming about on this forum, but the sixty four thousand dollar question is, will ASUU allow this? Will ASUU's insistence on an archaic model of academic valuation, compensation, and bargaining allow for the kind of meritocratic flexibility Professor Olukotun is suggesting? ASUU's existential anxieties would only be heightened by such a system, which would curb the backward-looking tyranny of that body. I'm not necessarily suggesting anything sinister about ASUU, but by caring more about its existence and continued relevance than about quality research and teaching in our universities and how these two foundational academic enterprises are rewarded and recognized, the ASUU folks have placed themselves ahead of the line as the preeminent underwriters of poor teaching and research in Nigerian academe. They will lament and decry but when it comes to allowing reform or simply getting out the way to allow innovative global academic practices of excellence to take root, they will brandish their trade union struggle manual from the 1970s and dust up hackneyed talking points long rendered irrelevant by recent events in Nigerian higher education and the the global knowledge economy.

The current ASUU template of collective uniform bargaining and uniform reward is a drag on Nigerian higher education. The failure to decentralize the connection between research and publication on the one hand and promotion/reward on the other shortchanges and discourages the few research-oriented, productive, and hardworking academics and in the system while protecting those whose lack of productivity should stall their upward mobility. It also breeds and subsidizes laziness, complacency, and incompetence, perpetuating the problem of poor teaching and lack of serious research that is the bane of higher education in Nigeria. As long as ASUU's outmoded 1960s era model is the arbiter of what gets valued or devalued for promotion and compensation purposes, you're going to keep having poor teachers and poor researchers being promoted by simply going through the motions of academic life.

Would ASUU, moreover, allow the kind of quality control and scrutiny Professor Olukotun is advancing in place of the current bean counting practice of the NUC/ASUU publication evaluation template? More crucially, for me, would Professor Olukotun have the liberty, latitude, and independence to speak so bluntly about the culpability of ASUU and ASUU-affiliated academics if he were in the public university system, a member of ASUU and a beneficiary of its bargaining victories that have ironically become stumbling blocks on the path of reform and accountability?







On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 9:20 PM, ayo_olukotun via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>>> wrote:
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
________________________________
From: Tunde Oseni <tundeoseni@gmail.com<mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com><mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com<mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com>><mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com<mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com><mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com<mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com>>>>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:34:17 +0100
To: ayo_olukotun<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com><mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>><mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com><mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>>>>
Subject: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?



UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?
Ayo Olukotun

'In a situation of prolonged decline and decay what needs re-building is more than just the infrastructure but also the ethos and the ethics of the academy' Jimi Adesina
To begin with our usual tit bits, consider how uplifting and therapeutic it was to learn that celebrated scholar, award winning poet and essayist, Niyi Osundare has been named winner of this year's National Merit Award. In a clime where good news is in short supply, it comes as refreshing drops of water, massaging parched throats. Of course, some may complain and validly too that it took this long for Osundare's distinction to be recognized by his countrymen but it's better late than never.

No stranger to awards, Osundare has been the recipient of the Fonion Nicholas award for Excellence in Literary Creativity and Significant contribution to Human Rights in Africa; the Norman Award, perhaps the most prestigious book prize for new work in Africa, which he won in 1991, among several others. What is especially regaling about this notice is that it came to someone who has been anything but sparing of the official cant and bumbling of successive Nigerian governments. Under the military, for example, the poet kept going a vibrant and lively observatory on the brutal excesses of the dictators, exploring the borders of permissible criticisms under cruel dictatorships. Needless it is to recall that his daring earned him several unwanted visits by the state security apparatus which consigned him to a blacklist. Truly one of our best and brightest, his prolific output has inspired and edified many. A fortnight ago, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), on the occasion of receiving a honourary Doctorate in Law from the University of Ibadan, made it known that he cut his milk teeth in literary matters by sitting at the feet of Osundare. The poet of the people, as he is called, Osundare demystified poetry by bringing it to our door steps wrapped in idioms drawn from nature and the melody of African life. Said he: 'poetry is the eloquence of the gong/ It is what the soft wind/music to the listening muse'. May his verses, virtue and verve continue to reverberate edifyingly to our benefit.

Take this along too. Renowned social critic and principal of Mayflower School, Ikenne, Tai Solarin came alive in a convocation lecture delivered on Wednesday by distinguished history professor, Toyin Falola, who is also the President of the African Studies Association. Going down memory lane to exhume the exploits of one of our heroes past, Falola argues that the nation is in need of visioners like Tai Solarin who are also imbued with a civic conscience and a passion for mentoring. Isolating the entrepreneurial skills which Solarin impacted to students of Mayflower, Falola submits that in a season when the prize of our oil is fluctuating like a yoyo, 'our educational goal should be able to make food available, plan cities, supply energy and run services'. Well said.

Now the main course; some newspapers have expressed consternation about a recent statement made by the minister of education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau to the effect that a lot of research money set aside by government under the Education Trust Fund is sitting pretty idle unused. The argument that has been made is that if indeed underfunding has been the bane of our universities and the reason therefore for ruptured calendars, how come our academics are not availing themselves of these funds believed to be in the neighbourhood of 3 billion naira? To unravel the mystery, this writer called up Professor Femi Bamiro, former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan and chairman TETFUND's screening/monitoring committee. Bamiro explained that his committee spent some time drawing up a research agenda in order to provide the template for administering the funds and screening applicants. He went on to say that out of 150 or so applications received in the last cycle only 30 met the standard set by his committee.

What is the problem? The scholar believes that there are issues of capacity in the universities which relate to inability to set out lucid proposals for funding. 'Grantsmanship' as one other academic, Prof Tiwa Olugbade calls it refers to the skill required to articulate research proposals in order to attract funding. Obviously, such attributes are not easy to come by in our universities. The opening quote drawn from Professor Jimi Adesina provides a clue to the underlying problem, namely that the decay which set in into the Nigerian academic culture in the late 1980s and 1990s washed over to affect the academic culture.

As is well known, several journals in our universities once had global appeal. Regrettably, very few of these journals or the epistemic schools that they represent have survived till today. More frequently, one encounters what one academic has described acerbically as fast food journals some of which die after the publication of Volume 1 Number 1.
To return to the point, it may startle but it is true that money set aside by some of our universities as research grants are rarely exhausted and since they could not be used for other purposes are returned unspent year after year. To be sure, and to take a somewhat global perspective, less than half of universities in the United States and other countries are truly research-oriented. There are diverse institutions many of which prioritize a teaching culture and do not take research all that seriously. Indeed, a debate rages as to whether the teaching of undergraduates is not being swallowed up by frenetic research activities in some institutions. This debate notwithstanding, the reality is that it is the quality of research in a university and consequently of its publications that situates it on the world map. Moreover, research should all the more be encouraged in universities in the developing world which have not had the advantage of drawing upon centuries of accumulated knowledge in solving problems.

One way therefore of closing the research gap is to attach more importance to academic output based on research in the promotion of academics. This would mean for example that far less recognition will be given to the production of text books which are drawn mainly from the classroom notes of the lecturers. In the same vein, so-called journal articles which do not significantly advance the literature in the discipline or open new lines of theoretical thinking will be lowly rated by promotion committees. On the positive side, academics that undertake research and publish their findings in credible journals should be entitled to bonuses and additional pay as it is the practice in some universities in South Africa.

In sum, research activity is low on the agenda of our universities because we have not attached particular incentives to it. It is also true as Bamiro argues that the universities must focus more on issues of training and building academic capacity in the area of research. The under-subscription by our academics of the National Research Fund indexes the current state of our academic culture; but we can begin to slowly re-build the comatose research tradition until it becomes once again globally competitive.

Prof Olukotun is the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lead City University, Ibadan








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---Mohandas Gandhi

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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.


---Mohandas Gandhi

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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.


---Mohandas Gandhi

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