Don urges varsities to promote cross-disciplinary scholarships

Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences, Augustine University, Ilara-Epe, Lagos state, Prof. Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, has advised institutions of higher learning across the country to popularise the potentials of cross-disciplinary scholarships, owing to its immense benefit to national growth.

Doing so will not only help the country overcome the limitations of over-specialisation, it will also maximise the advantages inherent in it.

Presenting a paper titled, “STEM to STEAM: Advancing the potential of cross-disciplinary literacies,” at the fourth matriculation of the institution, Raji-Oyelade, who is also a visiting professor of English Language from the University of Ibadan, said universities are expected to be centres of varying disciplines fused into a unilateral hub of knowledge, and harnessing the resources of each field.

Thus, the expectations must be fully explored in the interest of the country and humanity.

He said, “The essence is to be able to integrate more, and make the university more resourceful and instrumental in solving the problems of the common man. What does it mean to be literate in the age of (the new media) of multiple scholarships and multiple literacies? Without doubt, the new understanding of literacy in the new age is such that it invites multiple definitions, for literacy itself is a plural activity.

“How do we popularise the potential of cross-disciplinary scholarships for national development? How can we overcome the limitations of over-specialisation and maximize the advantages of it for national development? How do we maximize the dialogue of the disciplines, as a necessary means of attaining intellectual fullness?”

“It is only those who are capable of crossing the boundaries of the disciplines who will make the difference; those who possess the ability of disciplinary transgressions who can interact beyond the borders of their own specialisations; those who have the privilege of horizontal collaborations across the planks or branches of the disciplines; those who embrace the advancement and deployment of technology in education; and those who are not afraid to embrace the qualitative power of the imagination even when they are engaged in the empirical world of scientific.”

The vice chancellor, Prof. Steve Afolami, acknowledged the school proprietors for giving the management the freedom to operate, a situation he said is not common with private university owners.

Seventy-one students took the oath of matriculation at the ceremony.