|
New Page 3
Autonomy, good for varsities-- UNAD V-C
CHARLES ABAH
VICE-Chancellor
of the University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD), Prof. Israel Olatunji Orubuloye,
reviewing the controversy on university autonomy, has said that rather than
weaken the university system, it would strengthen the ivory towers and make them
more effective and functional.
He also dismissed as unnecessary, the fear
that the exercise would make university education the exclusive preserves of the
rich.
The vice-chancellor who stated these in
Ado-Ekiti while speaking with Daily Champion recently, equally canvassed
the deregulation of the universities with greater emphasis on private sector
participation.
Proper university autonomy, Prof.
Orubuloye said would rather give these institutions the freedom to run their
affairs as well as determined policies that would be beneficial to both their
staff and students.
Reminiscing, he explained that until the
intervention of the military in the 60s, universities enjoyed absolute autonomy
that enabled them to do their things in their own way including appointing the
vice-chancellors, lecturers and professors.
However, the action of the military in
education, particularly at the tertiary level, he said abused the system thereby
created confusion and lack of control.
"The situation was so bad at that time
that we lost control. What autonomy meant to them was the ability to appoint
your own vice-chancellor, fire him when you want to and if that was what would
make the council of the university functional.
"Once upon a time in this country, we had
a situation whereby the university visitors were virtually sleeping on the
campuses, while the chairmen of councils lived on campuses, not allowing the
vice-chancellors to perform," he said.
On university deregulation, the UNAD
helmsman frowned at the proposal for 74 more government universities, positing
that what the country needed now was private sector active participation in
education.
According to him, "we now have a number of
private universities coming up. I think we need quite a number of that and at
the same time we need government also. We don’t need 74 government
universities."
The vice-chancellor who further spoke
about the university, disclosed that plans were on to put its college of
medicine on sound footing.
He regretted that the college till now has
no law establishing it, just as past administrations reneged in their funding
promises to it.
He expressed optimism that the college
would receive attention in the state’s 2005 budget.
|
