A lot of people say Toyota vehicles are very good. They mention its reliability, durability, and affordability. The reason for this is that Toyota Auto Co. embraced the culture of quality decades ago. At the center of their trade is continuous improvement. Coincidentally, the Japanese who brought that culture to Japan learned it from the Americans. It is a major part of the American organizational system. The public system in Nigeria needs to embrace the culture of continuous improvement for it to thrive. Nigeria has yet to attain a level of quality that is productive and profitable. When we do, for these to be sustainable, we must find a way to evolve to meet new challenges that a world that is constantly changing will force on us. We cannot continue to do things the same way without consideration to changes that we have and are experiencing. We have a lot of these within every public system in Nigeria, especially the public university system.
A major bane to development in many spheres in Nigeria, especially the public sector, is a lack of continuous improvement culture. We continue to do things the old way. I will use the example of the public university system as a case study.
I worked as a lecturer in the Nigerian public university system for 13 years before I left. I have worked in the US-Canada public university systems now for over 13 years as well, so, I have some basic understanding of how the university systems work on both sides.
The public university system has not changed much from what it was during the colonial era. Many newer public universities were patterned after the old archaic system that has lost its effectiveness. Whereas go to the United Kingdom today and look at their university operation system, they have moved on from what you find within the Nigerian universities. The organizational structure is different - more effective in reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in decision-making. The academic structure is different. Workforce streamlining has been done to remove redundant positions that are siphoning public funds. In the STEM programs, Technologist positions have either been scrapped or restructured in a way that makes these positions more effective. You will never find a situation where there are more Technologists than academic staff in a department. This is the case in many Nigerian university systems and we keep wondering why there is no money to conduct research and manage the place more effectively.
The university senate council has a lot of say in educational policy development, which includes the approval of new programs, scrapping of unproductive departments, admission policy improvement, policy on graduation credits, strategy for increased enrollment, promotion and tenure, university funding system, etc.
Talking about funding for infrastructural development and research innovation, the TETFund idea is great but it is not operating in an effective way to drive growth, innovation, profitability, and development within the public and private university systems. The grant system is not effective. You do not see so much encouragement for private industry involvement. The process of funding is not transparent and there is a lot of bureaucracy and corruption going on. To improve scholarship, there is a need to tie the promotion of lecturers to the count of local and foreign grants they can secure to support their research.
You can talk about the university housing system. In many foreign universities, including the UK where we learned the example of university housing, they are self-sustaining and properly managed. That is not the case in Nigeria.
They have effective technology commercialization departments that are spinning money for the unis. Universities in the West are developing means beyond university ventures (businesses) to generate IGR. They are partnering with financial institutions to draw credits for faculty with innovative ideas to start small businesses. In fact, professors in the West get help to file patents and to start small businesses to commercialize their ideas with the university owning a stake in such businesses. Purdue University in the US makes billions of dollars yearly from its business incubator programs.
ASUU, the association of academics in public universities, has been clamoring for university autonomy for decades. Federal and State governments need to give it serious consideration. Autonomy should be autonomy. Public university funding in the West comes from several means - Federal and State governments through non-formula projects and direct budgeting, from endowments and gifts from philanthropists (they hire professional fundraisers who are given mandates yearly on how much they should raise, and their bonuses depend on meeting targets), from grants secured by faculty from public and private entities (between 10 - 55% goes back to the university administration). In an autonomous system, faculty (lecturers) salary is never the same. Individual faculty negotiate their salary. It gives room for a healthy competition for the best brains. Nigeria is a capitalist country; we should practice true capitalism. Paying everybody the same salary is socialism. There is the TENURE system, which is the beginning of wisdom for tenure-track faculty... Nigerian universities should introduce a tenure system.
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education, NUC, and the major stakeholders within the public university system need to work together to overhaul the system for it to be more effective. Enough of ASUU, SANUU... strikes. There is so much the university staff should be focusing on if the funding system is autonomous as ASUU is asking for...
There is a lot of rot within the public university system in Nigeria that needs to be rooted out. People always resist change, especially when some powerful few are benefiting from the status quo. If the Nigerian public university system wants to grow astronomically and wants to be competitive on a global scale starting from Africa, there is a need for a complete overhaul of the administrative and operational structure. I hope those who can affect the change are reading. There is no shortcut to growth. There must be a restructuring and continuous improvement culture.
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