Varsitytimes International … linking town and gown

Varsitytimes International is an online publication that seeks to provide news content as it affects the ivory towers, and by extension, Nigerian society.

With Prof. Daniel Awodiya as publisher/Editor-in-Chief, the initiative grew out of desire to close the gap of information flow that exists between the academia and the larger society.

The United States of America (USA)-based communication scholar who is on a visiting programme to the Mass Communication Department of the University of Lagos said “there has always been a gap between the universities and the society they are supposed to serve, especially in this part of the world where many of the problems would have been solved within the universities.

“But there is no link to transit that information, that knowledge, that research findings, that solutions to the larger economy and the society to the extent that many solutions lay in the vaults of the universities where dissertations, projects are kept. And there is no forum linking both town and gown.

“So, Versitytimes International becomes a link, a medium for propagating the ideals of the academia and the ideals of the professional world marrying the two and presenting such in a symbiotic sense, so that society can benefit from the universities and universities can benefit from the society.”

Basically, the publication offers fresh and up-to-date education news and blogs. Creates platform for students to participate in global online discussions and debates. Provides access to data and posts questions on research topics as well as facilitates collaboration on research studies across the world.

It also provides information on workshops, research efforts, lectures, social events and link up students with e-pals from any university campus across the world.

The vision of the publisher is to create print edition of the publication twice in a month, “because people still want to see physical material.”

Prof. Awodiya is the only one managing the publication for now. He sources some of the stories from other newspapers and publications with similar orientation for now. “But I am putting a proposal together, if this is funded well, we want to have two editions (print) in a month,” he said.

The publication, he informed, is patterned along some major publications in the world that are doing exactly the same thing.

“There is Chronicle of Higher Education  in the United States. It comes out every Mondays. Anything academia you will find it there.

Whether it is a seminar, professorial jobs… anything such as research findings, science and tech, all of the innovations you will find there. Whatever the universitiesare broaching, you will find it in the Chronicle of HIgher Education to the extent that it has become a Bible for everyone in academia and then in government because they capture what the universities are doing through it especially in the research areas as research works are summarized and published every Mondays.

“For instance, if there is a new development in Super Colliders or a new research findings in HIV/AIDS, you have it there. If it is new design in terms of housing from the architecture school, it is there. So, society does not continue to repeat the old practices that will not bring any benefit.

“The essence of the universities is actually to improve the life of the people. But if we are stucked in the old tradition, of what use is the universities? They are supposed to give the society new and improved methods of doing things.”

Varsitytimes International began operation over one year ago. But its vision dates back to 1989 when the publisher first experimented the idea of publishing a magazine that would address issues in the ivory towers in Nigeria.

Awodiya went down memory lane. “The initiative began as the African Graduate in 1989. Bayo Onanuga (now the MD of News Agency of Nigeria) gave me so much publicity in The News when I started The African Graduate because I was exposed to Chronicle of Higher Education as well as Black Collegian, a magazine that catered to all of the black people and universities in America and many others.

It was an instrument that connected all of the black universities, just as the Chronicle connected and still connects every university in America.

“So, I came home with the conviction that I should do something like this. I started the idea in 1989, came to Nigeria in 1990, a year before I finished my Ph.D programme to launch it. It attracted personalities in the academia and society. It was well attended. I paid for one of the conference rooms here at Unilag. Some people still have copies. I am sure I still have about five copies stucked somewhere in Ilesa. That was the only edition I did because I went to finish my Ph.D and then went on with my life. But I was happy to spend my money to do that thing at that time. Now it has morphed into something bigger, Varsitytimes International.”

With funds, Awodiya believes the publication should take on big projects and run as a business that can generate a lot of money. “We will sponsor many things such as Varsitytime Polls to predict elections; we will do social research; rate universities; rate programmes like what NUC does, ours is going to be a private entity. Besides, we will sponsor sports in the universities such as NUGA, we may sponsor the final games of NUGA for publicity purposes…”

For now, the online publication has not been launched, being in operation for over a year notwithstanding. “ I really want to get some financing from sources so that we can back it up and propel it.”

On whether system in Nigerian universities will accommodate this kind of initiative, Awodiya said, “when you introduce ideas that are good, because the universities are full of intellectuals and people who are visionary, quick thinkers, they see the good in the idea. There is no doubt that if it is well presented to them, they will latch on to it. It is going to be a platform for the universities to reach all of the constituency/segments and population they will want to reach including the government, even the students, their parents, the businesses and industries in general, the universities will be able to communicate directly. It becomes a forum for all the universities for their news items, students socio… and stuff like that. The idea of a face book, a pen pad … from university to university, students can link up with those who are studying the same courses not necessarily in Nigeria, but all over the world.

You throw your topic up there and the student in China respond to you with material … So they can learn from students over there and vice versa. It is a platform for international cross pollination of ideas.”