COMMUNIQUE – THE 2016 NIGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT

COMMUNIQUE

THE 2016 NIGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT

PREAMBLE

The conference organized by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian universities (CVC) in partnership with the Dakar based Trust Africa was held in Abuja from November 21 to 23, 2016. The theme of the conference was EXPLOITING DIVERSITY, DIFFERENTIATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN REVITALISING THE NIGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Goodwill messages/remarks were received from some state governors, the NUC, JAMB, the Consultant on Education of Trust Africa and Prof Jega, as summit chair.

The keynote address was delivered by Dr Benedict Oramah, President African Export-Import Bank, Cairo,  who observed that African higher education curricula must address African issues and challenges, while universities continuous funding challenges can be addressed through increased IGRs, effective use of PPP platforms and/or engagement of private sector, accessing international funding agencies and other innovative fund raising strategies.

Conference also used the platform for the public presentation of the book entitled The Future and Relevance of Nigerian Universities and other Tertiary Institutions.

Given the myriad of challenges bedeviling the Nigerian Higher Education sector,

Conference observed as follows;

• Lack of proper categorization and differentiation of HEIs leading to systematic loss of relevance to National needs and requirements.
• Poor synergy between requirements of business, industry and employers of labour and the curricular of HEIs.
• Absence of comprehensive Legal instrument on HEIs.
• Inconsistencies and Policy reversals in the Laws/Regulations governing HEIs.
• Conflict between regulatory agencies enabling laws and institutional autonomy as enstricted in the Acts of power of HEIs.
• Persistent poor underfunding of HEIs at current 7% of the National budget.
• Poor linkage between vision and mission of HEIs and core aspects of human and national development.
• Weak, uncoordinated challenge to processes of quality assurance in HEIs.
• Centrality of funding to the growth, development and relevance of HEIs to National Development.
• Poor access to HEIs due to non adoption of ICT possibilities.
• Declining quality of higher education debriefing due to inability to leverage on ICT possibilities such as LMS and prohibiting cost of ICT infrastructure in HEIS as a result of individualized models currently operational in many HEIs.
• Inadequate understanding of the role of ICT in driving pedagogy of HEIs leading to poor policy and implementation strategies.
• Persistent and acute underfunding of HEIs.
• Absence of synergy/coordination of key stakeholders on financial commitment to HEIs.
• Absence of reliable financial data on funding cost requirements of HEIs.
• Failure of HEIs to rise to the responsibility of financial generation and management in line with world’s best practices.