The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Professor Suleiman Bogoro, has revealed that over 60 per cent of lecturers in the Nigerian university system are now doctorate degree holders.
He said this was an improvement over four years ago when only 40 per cent of lecturers in Nigerian universities had PhD. By the National Universities Commission (NUC) standard, PhD is the basic qualification for one to be a lecturer in any University in Nigeria.
He spoke on Wednesday at an interactive session with Directors of Research of Nigerian universities organised by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Bogoro who disclosed that TETFund has in the last four years invested enormous resources on the training of lecturers at Master’s and PhD levels both at home and abroad, however, lamented the low capacity of lecturers to write good research proposals that could win them grants.
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He said in order to address this challenge the Fund has earmarked N10 million for the training of scholars on proposal writing across the universities in Nigeria.
He also disclosed that TETFund had established a National Research Fund of N3billion a few years ago to encourage research at a cutting-edge level and activities that would impact positively on the competitiveness of the country on the global scientific milieu.
The TETFund boss said it was unfortunate that universities in Nigeria for long dwell more on teaching and research for promotion rather than research that could help solve the economic or societal problems.
Bogoro, also revealed that the Fund was in the process of setting up a Standing Committee on Research and Development (R&D) that would properly coordinate research and identify areas that require special attention for the purpose of funding.
Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed in his remark, said the interactive session was organised as part of efforts to revive the culture of rigorous and relevant research in Nigerian universities.
He lamented that the culture of research was almost zero in some universities in Nigeria because the institutions focus more on teaching and graduating students.
Rasheed while tasking universities to take the lead in creative innovation, said universities must not only put research on their front burner but begin the process of turning themselves into research-intensive institutions.
He said: “No university in today highly competitive, the globalised world can win any significant research grant without first demonstrating the existence of robust research management system traversing the entire value chain from proposal writing, research accounting, project management among others.”
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