Absence of policy to bridge the gap between varsities, industries responsible for youth unemployment, says Kolo Crawford VC

Professor Reuben Jiya Kolo is the 4th Vice Chancellor of Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State. In this interview with Adelowo Adebumiti and Opeyemi Babalola, the VC expressed concern over increasing spate of unemployment and how to tackle the menace. He also stressed the importance of research and how collaboration between industries and universities can enhance development.

Since 2020 when you came on board as VC, how has the journey been so far?
When I came here at the beginning, it was not that I was not aware of some of the challenges that we have, but since God brought me here, he has been our supporter and proven himself.

Being part of the Board of Trustees before my appointment as VC, I was privileged to know some of our challenges. One of such challenges is accessibility. It is not that there were no access roads, but they were in deplorable conditions. By the grace of God, the Atan Agbara road has been inaugurated and work has advanced. So, the problem of low enrollment is gradually being solved,last session witnessed very encouraging enrollment.

Another challenge we faced was accommodation, there was also the problem of shortage of staff in some departments where we have high influx of students like Mass Communication, which is one of our top programmes.

Coming from a government-owned institution, can you compare the facilities, quality of teaching and research with that of private institutions you are presently in?
I was privileged to be a lecturer in a federal university, besides I was also in positions of administration in several cadres.

For public universities, they don’t experience some of the challenges we here in private institutions. For example, in terms of facilities, lecturing and so on, I discovered that public universities have students seeking admission that they cannot even take all of them. But that is not a challenge for private universities.

Also, they have enough lecturers and everybody is mandated to teach at the appropriate time but students are at greater freedom.

Some students may not come to class and they are not being chased around, but during exams, you expect them to pass. However, despite that, there must be 75 per cent of class attendance before a student can take the examination. So, all these are done by the lecturers and it is left for students to meet up.

But in private universities, there is a difference. For some students, we have to go extra mile to follow up by making sure that hostels are locked during school hours to ensure that students go for lectures. We are deliberate in making sure we deliver stuff to our students and also encourage them to get what we want to teach them. We are not interested in them just getting our certificates, they must be able to defend their certificates.

We put checks in place to make them participate in classes actively. That is why we have a biometric machine to log in the time you attend the chapel and also lectures.

We let parents know that their ward is defaulting in some areas, such as class attendance for instance. So, we are deliberate in making sure we deliver to students not only in academics, but part of spiritual training, to make them better.

In the area of research, in public universities, they have been there for a long time. They enjoy government subventions. So, over the years, the facilities for research have been built and we also have a lot of syndicate groups that apply for grant-winning research proposals. In public institutions, there are research opportunities like Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), but in private universities, we are deliberate on our own. We see that our staff are doing their research, but we know that these days, for you to be in a world-class university, you are not doing local research

For instance, at Crawford, we are doing collaborative research. So, in our own little way, we make funds available for local research.

Despite the large number of universities in Nigeria (about 209 at the last count), it is observed that there is much disconnect between the town and gown in terms of research from ivory towers driving societal developments in all ramifications, why is this so? How do you think this scenario could be altered?
It is so because everybody is on their own. The industrialists are on their own, the government that would facilitate policy that would bring industries together and link them to institutions are not doing it. The third party, which are the research institutions such as universities, are all on their own.

In other countries, what is obtained is that government policy will facilitate the industries, liaising and being attached to a particular institution whereby they will be bringing in their problems to universities for solution and they will work towards solving such problems.

But in Nigeria, what we have is that the environment does not encourage linkage between industries and universities.
If we are to go back to interface it, the government must understand that industries are corporate organisations and must be linked to universities to help the system. Even once they discover a few of them that are still schooling, they will be using them to solve some of their challenges. That is the way forward to solve the problem.

What is your justification for private universities canvassing inclusiveness in the sharing of TETFUND resources?
The way we are running education now, we thought it should be a commonwealth for everybody to have access to. So, if private universities are contributing to the training of human resources that would serve the society in the capacity that will lead to the growth of the economy. When the government is putting up policy that would bring money to fund some of these institutions, I don’t think it is justified that private institutions should be left out. Imagine, what we have now, despite the challenges that are there, that the public institutions are on strike, we are still producing and these graduates will be useful for the Nigerian market. So, if we produce those that will contribute to the economy, I think it is justified that the government should be able to support in terms of infrastructure or any means because if we look at the ranking of the universities, we would see that private institutions are pulling their weight to be recognised globally.

What is your take on the ranking of Nigeria universities in the global clime?
First of all, I want to congratulate our country because the institutions have improved on our ranking.
Talking of global ranking, institutions are waking up because of internal ranking we are doing. It makes it easier for us to also be able to feature competitively with other institutions in diaspora. So, the game has changed and the government has woken up in terms of ranking.

What we are to do to remain on top s what we are doing presently. To make sure that when it calls for ranking, we should endeavour to participate. That one will tell us where we are failing and help us to correct our wrong steps. The thing is, they won’t come and look at these facilities, but there are some indexes that are being taken into consideration to determine the ranking.

It is claimed that persistent strikes in public universities are giving private universities an edge in terms of stable calendar, but exorbitant school fees is hindering enrollment and rise in students population. What is your take on this?
It is the orientation of the general public that there is a rise in fees of private universities. Things are not presently easy, but one must determine what you want and where you want to be, and you must be ready to make sacrifices.

But from the beginning, we have been having it all free and people are used to that. So, to be able to manage themselves, and put resources together to train their children in private universities is a big problem for some of these parents.

But if you look at the cost of education, especially in this place, it is still comparable to other countries. While it’s true that some universities are charging quite high, if you look at people that value education, they are prepared to go all the way. Even some primary and secondary schools fees are higher than those of some universities.

In private schools, we need to pay the staff that we employ and we are not getting subventions from the government. So, if we must compete or deliver quality education that is expected to make graduates globally competitive, then, we must charge commensurate prices for school fees that would be able to put facilities in place and also retain our lecturers for delivery of quality education.

What are the things you’re doing differently since you assumed office and what are those things you still intend to focus on before the end of your tenure?
Although there were some challenges I met when I was appointed as vice-chancellor, the first thing that I focused on was to increase enrollment. That is why we have been having a lot of adverts, placing billboards and doing a lot of canvassing for students.
Another thing is to increase our revenue base. The other one is to increase the academic base of the university by trying to introduce new programmes that are cash cows. Programmes that people will know us for, that is what we are trying to build on.

I am working on the issue of research, that will improve our ranking. We have created a research platform that people are contributing to and things that are beneficial are being sent there.

Also, we need to employ more staff, especially academic staff, to be able to meet up the challenges of the growing population of students.

Another thing is infrastructure, we have to look inwards to get infrastructure that will facilitate learning in a conducive environment and make it modern.

By 2025, you will be handing over successfully the leadership of the institution, what are some of those things you will want the institution to remember you for?
What I will like the institution to remember me for are some of those things I have mentioned earlier.Students enrollment was low but since I came in, I was able to build on it that to some certain level. Secondly, we are running three colleges now, and it is my prayer that we increase the number of colleges. Also, we have a branch at Oye Ekiti, which we are working very hard to see that some programmes take-off.

What does the future hold for the university and its graduates?
The future is bright for the university and our graduates. Already, they are pulling their weights. For instance, we have the alumni association in the United Kingdom. What we are doing on our part is to bring them together to have their track record. Previously, just around May or so, there was an award night for deserving alumni of this university and hearing what they were doing at where they are, we are encouraged.

We are so particular about them because the students of nowadays, I am sorry to say, even some of their parents, from their utterances, they just want certificates for their children.

What is your advice on how to resolve the ongoing strike by public universities lecturers and non-academic unions?
There must be sincerity between the two parties, both ASUU and the Federal Government. Because as it were, parents have talked, even all stakeholders in the sector have waded into the matter. Some of them don’t even understand the details that are in there, only that the lecturers are on strike and that they are asking for a salary increment. That is what they know. So what I just want to say is that, the government should listen to them and come to an agreement with them. We have told ASUU members that the issue of salary should be put at number two or three on their list of demands, so that government can attend to that quickly because once they agree on one or two, and when they see that it is getting to salary, they will now scatter it, insisting that they have met all their demands. But if they put it at the front, it may be attended to. There should be sincerity for the sake of the nation. They should come to term and let us suspend the strike.