The
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali
(OON), has called for improved funding of universities in the country to
enhance the delivery of quality education and to enable more people
have access to tertiary education through the expansion of existing
facilities.
Prof. Ambali, who made the call in an
exclusive interview with The News Magazine recently, also registered his
support for the mooted plan by the Federal Government to establish
mega-varsities in the country, saying they would substantially help in
absorbing many of the university admission seekers who could not
otherwise be admitted due to limited carrying capacities of the existing
universities.
The Vice-Chancellor urged the Federal
Government to “improve the funding to universities because with adequate
funding, some of the existing universities will be expanded to
accommodate more candidates”. He also appealed to the government to
allow the universities to embark on online degree programmes just as
many institutions now run some sandwich programmes. “If that is extended
to the populace, it will reduce the backlog of unadmitted candidates
that we have across the country”, he said.
While appreciating the efforts of the
Federal Government for its support for the myriads of projects on the
Unilorin campus, Prof. Ambali lamented that funding remains a major
challenge confronting his administration because “we have so many
projects that we want to execute.”
The Vice-Chancellor said, “We want to be
able to provide more infrastructure, especially in terms of building
more hostels to accommodate students; we also need more money to train
more staff, though we are among the very few universities that have 60
per cent of staff with PhDs. We want to improve on that so that we can
have better quality teaching staff. We need funds for our staff to
attend more conferences, to be able to present their research papers and
interact with their colleagues all over the world.”
Prof. Ambali also submitted that the
prudent management of limited resources, as well as support from friends
of the University, has made it possible for the University to execute
many capital projects. “The little money we have is channeled towards
improving the condition of the University, especially in terms of
offices, laboratories, as well as equipment in the laboratories”, he
noted.
Prof. Ambali expressed optimism that the
Oil Palm Plantation, as well as others, like the Teak and Jatropha
plantations, being embarked upon by the University, would contribute to
the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the institution in the future,
saying that the plantation was established to serve as a laboratory for
students in the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry Department and other disciplines like Life Sciences, and even Engineering.
He said, “We want to be able to
practicalise a lot of programmes that we have on campus so that Oil Palm
plantation will serve as a field laboratory for those that are in those
disciplines.
The
Vice-Chancellor pointed out that “by the time the plantation must have
reached maturity stage, we will be able to augment whatever the Federal
Government is giving us as fund for maintenance. We also hope that when
the time comes, it will afford us the opportunity to serve the community
because during harvesting and processing, we would need extra hands and
it is in those areas that the community workforce would be mobilised.
Of course, we have to pay for their services, and that will translate
into alleviating poverty among our people within the immediate
community.”
Explaining the reason for the harmonious
student-management and staff-management relationship that thrives on
campus, which has also culminated in the stable academic calendar, which
the University enjoys over the years, Prof. Ambali said, “We try as
much as possible to be close to our students. We understand that when
students are here, all the staff members become their parents. We try as
much as possible to bring them closer to us, so that their challenges,
fears and their moments of happiness can be shared and celebrated
together.”
He added, “We try as much as possible to
be transparent to them, showing them the way and addressing issues
without necessarily resorting to negative attitude or approach; and we
endeavour to address whatever hardship they are going through. Also, we
try to re-orientate them to be focused and to have an objective that
they would love to achieve before leaving here. This is working and we
have quite a number of our students doing things that can improve their
welfare as well as improve the image of the University as a whole”.
The Vice-Chancellor also submitted that
the remaining part of his tenure will be devoted to providing a
comfortable environment for students and staff to aid learning, research
and work output. He acknowledged their diligent contributions to the
rising profile of the University as the best in the country.
Prof. Ambali advised the staff and
students, “In order to remain as long as possible at the top, we have to
continue working very hard. We know that we have 129 universities in
Nigeria, and if we are number one, it means we have about 128
universities watching and studying us and wanting to kick us out of that
position. We just have to continue to work hard so that we can stay on
top for as long as possible. We should continue to improve upon whatever
we are doing, knowing that the other 128 universities want to be in our
place.”
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