It’s deeply concerning how the country is handling its human resource development if what’s happening in our education, especially at the universities, is to go by.
Serious learning and student development has collapsed; most are reeling in debts and several heavily engaged in nothing related to production of knowledge leaving of the public institutions of higher learning just marking time.
The running and management of public universities requires urgent radical re-organization and re-orientation; for as its now, you cannot convince anybody that they can produce what the country needs.
The disruption in the university education is costing the country big loss, and now due to a flawed system of recruiting top managers including the Council chairs, chancellors and vice chancellors, these public universities stay at stalling and destroying the future of attending them.
We must quickly fix this, in addition to addressing the current industrial action facing them. It has become too costly for the students, staff, partners and parents associated with public universities as more relating to these institutions of high learning happens outside the institutions than inside.
The waste and idleness associated with academic institutions is irritating as we waste the future of our children.
The seeming lack of leadership and impunity by the heads of these institutions is largely because of the politicization of the appointments of the University Council members and lack of merit thereof which denies them diversity, relevant qualifications and competence in leadership.
This has eroded trust and confidence from staff, students, development partners, associates and government, who are not sure how to fund the universities to enable them play serious national development through research and intellectual contribution to the good of the nation.
In addition to the current strike by lecturers and staff, which has seen students waste themselves around the institutions, with some opting to sending students home indefinitely, most public universities are reeling from massive debts, led by incompetent and insecure managers afraid to engage with their colleagues, struggling with bloated staff and are not fully functionally, have abandoned their core functions of curating knowledge and innovation through teaching and research.
Academic schedules have been reduced to routine class rituals where class work is relegated to photocopying books; AI generated assignments and WhatsAp forwards.
University hostels and restaurants are filled with non- university students, as most of the halls have been rented by middlemen, who sell the rooms to students are exorbitant prices. It’s almost impossible for students to get access to university facilities.
Missing marks for students, missed graduation and permanent students are now the hallmarks of the once prestigious institutions, with no serious research, knowledge production and academic exchange happening.
It’s sad the universities that are independent institutions under various constitutive Acts with councils have been denied the opportunity to appoint vice-chancellors, their deputies, principal of colleges and their deputies who understand the environments and requirements better to outsiders.
We have witnessed constant clashes between the Councils and the Vice Chancellors, leading tensions that frustrate learning and running of the institutions-extending to frustrating partners, joint programmes and student development.
There is too much external influence in who can become a senior manager at the universities, relegating Councils to mere conveyor belts in the management of universities. This has created the impression that the Councils, unlike boards of other Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies, cannot be trusted or are competent enough to be fully in charge of these academic institutions.
The Universities Act 2012 empowers universities as independent institutions to regulate their affairs in accordance with their independent ethos and traditions including in regard to- the promotion and preservation of equality of opportunity and access. The Act also requires Universities to preserve and promote the traditional principles of academic freedom in the conduct of their internal and external affairs.
Currently, University Councils under the Statue Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) 2018 Act were dethroned from advertising, interviewing and recommending for appointment top university managers.
Just like boards recruit chief executive officers guided by the various national public interest requirements and constitutional provisions, councils should be given mandate to recruit the top leadership for universities, as independent institutions.
It requires that university councils appoint the top managers in consultation with the education minister after a competitive recruitment process by the Public Service Commission (PSC). In the case of chancellors, the university senate will in consultation with key stakeholders identify suitable persons for appointment.
‘Five names shall be proposed to the Senate and submitted to PSC for shortlisting and identification of three suitable candidates ranked in order of merit.
Government should assist universities secure their properties including land assets, buildings and security of students in and around universities.
The Public Health Ministry should ensure the university environments meet basic requirements of health, as many of the institutions have run out of habitable public utilities in around classes and in the halls of residences.