Our VC's Address Continues.....

Changing for the positive at UNN

By Professor Bartho Okolo

Salutations!

It gives me especially great pleasure to address you today, because of the important tasks ahead of us collectively, and in view of the prevailing circumstances at the Nsukka campus.

First, I want to appreciate all of you for the work that you do in providing the enabling environment for the proper functioning of the university. The teaching and learning at the heart of the University’s mission cannot be accomplished without your invaluable administrative acumen.

Secondly, thank you for helping to maintain the equilibrium of the university in the wake of the unfortunate recent events on the Nsukka campus. As you know, the Governing Council has set up an Administrative Panel of Inquiry into the incident. I will respect the integrity of that Panel and refrain from making any comments on those who vandalised our collective assets.

Permit me however to observe that violent expressions of resentment and anger are not in tune with the spirit of UNN and is a recent obnoxious development. UNN students have historically held strong views and joined their colleagues all over Nigeria to express strong views, but they do so through superior arguments and in civil discourse. That is the spirit of Nsukka, a positive spirit aimed at up-building and development in the face of limited resources.

As I said, we do not want to scapegoat anybody or apportion blames at this point. While the Administrative Panel does its work, I urge that we put the incident behind us and think of the future.

In doing so, there is need to clarify some issues. First, permit me to reiterate that the University of Nigeria has not increased fees for its students. The acceptance fee that people refer to erroneously is a charge on candidates for processing their papers. Those who pay it are not yet students of the university.

As you may know, our meeting today would have held earlier but for circumstances beyond our control. I am thus very pleased to meet with you and to share thoughts on the way forward in our school. I have already shared some of these thoughts with the Governing Council and the Senate.

One of the things we did last year following my appointment as Vice Chancellor was to lead a team to go abroad to mobilise resources for staff development and capital projects aimed at raising the profile of the university. We realise that we cannot raise the profile of the university without internationalising it.

Central to our vision therefore is the need to raise the profile of the University of Nigeria to the level of a global centre of learning. It would mean bringing in international staff and students and allowing exchanges with our own staff and students. If we hope to bring in this international faculty, we have to make our environment decent. That informed the need to clean up our environment and led to some of the demolitions that reportedly angered a portion of the community. We had outlined alternatives in a 280-stall modern mammy market on which work would have commenced but for the disturbances.

The recent unfortunate incidents underline the need for more effective communication, and we are committed to improving the flow of communication in the university. There is need in the interim for all of us to eschew the recourse to rumours and negative stories that only needlessly misdirect people and even inflame passions.

The Vision

Our vision for the University in the days ahead draws from and extends the vision of the founding fathers. It is

to place the University of Nigeria in the forefront of research and development, innovation, knowledge creation and knowledge transfer, human resource development and community service, while promoting the core values which will ensure the restoration of the dignity of man.

Nothing less is expected of our university as the first university in the country. The task ahead is a huge one that requires consolidating the gains of past administrations and improving on the many achievements they recorded.

We have outlined specific programmes under this broad vision.

International linkages and global focus

More than ever before, the world has become one big global village. Globalisation is even more pronounced in education and academics with knowledge available for sharing across the world. The notion of Nigerian or Ghanaian standard, or any other, is not so relevant nowadays as the academic community recognises one global standard. It is in this wise that we have mapped out a programme of international linkages that would see the University of Nigeria properly linked to the global academic community.

Just yesterday, February 4, a team from here signed an agreement with the renowned New York Academy of Sciences that would enable 300 lecturers become members of the Academy. Our postgraduate students would also benefit from membership of Science Alliance which provides manpower development, training and resource assistance. The initial projection is for enrolment of 500 post graduate students and 300 staff with the New York Academy of Sciences. We have therefore become the 33rd member University of the NYAS Alliance and probably the 2nd in Africa.

Dr. Chima Bennet Nwanguma, Senior Special Assistant the Vice Chancellor on Special Duties led the team to New York and had with him Prof Jerry Ugwuanyi, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor on Research and Academic Output, Dr. Nnaemeka Chukwuone and Dr. Ben Okwo.

The NYAS agreement is one of several initiatives and agreements that we brokered with universities across the world during my trip abroad late last year. Other agreements include that with North Dakota State University that would see our staff travel to Fargo, North Dakota in the United States while lecturers would come from there to share experiences with our students and staff, there is one with Long Island University, and others with universities in Japan etc.

We will provide detailed information on these developments in the days ahead.

Academic infrastructure and scholarships

We are committed to providing the requisite infrastructure for academic work in the modern world. My target within the first year is for all staff of the University of Nigeria to be online from their offices. This would boost our primary duty of academic work, but also enable fast and easy communication between and among staff. We are working with Google Inc to ensure delivery of this service. Google has invested incredible technical and financial resources towards this project.

Scholarships are also an essential tool for manpower development that we would deploy. We are waiving tuition fees for staff studying for a Post Graduate qualification within the university for a doctorate degree.

We would also sponsor staff to at least one local conference every year and one international conference every five years. Finally we would support staff in finding research collaborators, research grants, sabbatical positions and participation in exchange programmes. Staff will also receive support towards the publication of standard textbooks. (Talks are already underway with McGraw-Hill Publishers, UK on the project).

Continuous Professional Development

All categories of staff will benefit from a robust and integrated programme of continuous professional development. Opportunities will be created for all categories of staff to get exposed to international best practices in order to improve performance.

In addition to that, at the local level the Continuing Education Centre will be revitalized to organise further trainings for all levels of staff. The University Bookshop would also be reorganized to live up to its role in a modern multidisciplinary university like ours.

Upgrade of municipal infrastructure

The pursuit of academic excellence is greatly facilitated by material conditions that conduce to a high quality of life. University Management in this dispensation will treat as a priority the provision and upgrading of municipal facilities of electricity, roads and water. We would ensure provision of adequate water supply on all floors of buildings including offices, laboratories, hostels and staff residences.

Beautification of the environment has already commenced, and we intend to pursue it to a logical conclusion. All over the world universities are known for their aesthetic appeal and we intend to make UNN one of the most appealing in physical structures and environment.

Work will soon commence on major infrastructure projects at Nsukka and Enugu campuses. There is the Students Multipurpose Centre, which has been ongoing for years and which we have committed to completing this year, a new International Scholar Centre to host all the faculty and resource persons we hope to attract internationally as well as from within Nigeria, and the 280-hall Shopping Complex to be built under a Private Public Partnership arrangement. At the Enugu Campus, work has commenced on the N6b Institute of Financial Studies sponsored by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and in latter months we will be working on a Clinical Diagnostic and Wellness Centre as well as the Institute of Capital Market Studies.

Students Welfare

We are committed to improving the living conditions of students on all campuses, to combat the overcrowding and poor sanitation that has been a recurring feature of hostels. Hostels would take primacy in the water and electricity improvement projects, as would facilities to enhance the student experience on our campuses. We are working hard to complete the Students’ Multipurpose Centre which will provide a host of facilities for the comfort of students.

Staff Welfare

All of the foregoing would tell you where we are going. A highly efficient and motivated workforce is needed to ensure delivery of the high quality services and infrastructure that we envision for the university.

I subscribe to the notion of staff as members of a University family. We spend most of our waking hours daily and yearly working with each other in the service of the university. Many of us spend the greater part of our adult lives here, developing relationships beyond the work place. I for one have spent 23 years here and know most of you personally.

We must retain a spirit of family. We must work together as one, united by a common purpose, and neighbour feeling. I extend a hand of brotherly love and professional amity. Together, we can extend the honour of the great University of Nigeria, and rewrite its history in golden colours.

Thank you for listening.

Excerpts of address to the University Community by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Prof Bartho Okolo on Friday, February 5, 2010.

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