Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
The immediate past Director of Distance Learning Centre (DLC), University of Ibadan, Prof. Bayo Okunade, has called for more investment in Nigerian universities.
Prof. Okunade, in a chat with newsmen in Ibadan, stressed that investment in the existing universities especially in the first generation ones would increase their carrying capacity.
“Expand the existing ones with more infrastructure, more funding. Given the existing structure of office, first generation universities cannot double the current number of students being admitted”, he said.
Speaking on the sufficiency of universities in the country, the don said:” If one looks at the number of universities in Nigeria, as at now, they are fewer than 150, private, public and state put together.
When you compare it with the population of Nigerians seeking admission you will find out that we don’t have enough universities. The more evidence is the number of students that are qualified to enter universities and those eventually admitted. We’re told around 1.5 million are seeking 500 places in Nigerian universities, where do you want others to go? Apparently, we don’t have. Buy the issue is which way to go? Whether we need brick and mortar universities or conventional ones which are very expensive, where do we go?”.
Making a case for Distance Learning mode as a way of overcoming admission quagmire, the professor of Political Science said it was obvious that the country does not have enough universities to cater for the number of students seeking admission.
“The way out is to invest in ODL mode, because the advantage of DL is that it gives the students the opportunity to benefit from higher education without necessarily have to come within the four walls of universities.
With ODL we don’t need the conventional university classrooms. The number of students you can admit is virtually unlimited.
” So, if we say we don’t have enough universities, my take is that we don’t necessarily have to waste resources on conventional universities”.
He also added: “We can have a blended mode comprising conventional and distance learning modes where everything may not be classroom-based. That’s what is being done in Europe and America”.
The political scientist also identified paucity of funds and inadequate human capacity as problems plaguing education in the country.
“We need to produce the manpower locally. That’s what UI is doing in Nigeria”, he said.
