THE National Universities Commission (NUC) in partnership with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has trained some vice chancellors and other officials in the university system on the development and use of electronic management dashboards for effective governance of the universities.
The 12-week intensive training course was concluded for the 321 participants made up of vice chancellors, directors of Academic Planning, directors of ICT and staff of NUC and other national quality assurance agencies in Africa on ‘Development and Use of Management Dashboards for Academic Planning’ to aid governance of the universities.
Addressing the press after the graduation ceremony, Professor Emeritus Peter Okebukola, who is the director/facilitator-general of the Virtual Institute for Capacity Building in Higher Education (VICBHE), the platform for delivering the fully-practical and fully-virtual training, said that the participants were trained on skills to set up governance dashboards that could take up streamed data in real time for effective planning and management of their institutions.
He noted that this is in the continuing effort to build capacities of staff in the Nigerian university system toward the implementation of the Blueprint on Rapid Revitalisation of University Education in Nigeria (2019-2023) which is heralding the “Rasheed Revolution.”
He added: “NOUN is providing the technical platform and expertise at no cost for now to participants while resource persons for VICBHE modules are experts drawn from all over the world.”
The executive secretary of the NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, heads the governance structure of VICBHE. VICBHE was initiated by the NUC Strategy Advisory Committee (STRADVCOM).
Okebukola applauded the efforts of the participants, 152 of which earned distinction and thanked the vice chancellor of NOUN, Professor Olufemi Peters, for showing once again that NOUN is the number one open and distance learning institution in Africa.
Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, in his remarks, noted that it was heart-warming that since its inauguration in 2021, VICBHE had successfully completed four training modules, and the feedback from stakeholders had been superlatively encouraging.
He commended the vice chancellors who have consistently participated in the capacity-building programmes of VICBHE and encouraged others to emulate such exemplary leadership.
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Two vice chancellors, Professor Ibiyinka Fuwape of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University and Professor Elisabetha Smaranda Olarinde of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUA), won special awards for earning distinction in all the four modules already implemented by VICBHE.
Meanwhile, late Dr Maryam Sali, former director of Accreditation of NUC, was given a posthumous award as a facilitator on the programme.
In his keynote address at the graduation ceremony, vice chancellor, University of Lagos Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, noted that the management dashboards are “very important to the participants and are the artistic way of placing decisions before management to help in taking action or deciding on what they need to do to move the universities forward.”
Ogundipe underscored that readily available performance data would help to increase the reputation of universities across the country and contribute to the proper ranking of Nigerian universities globally.
He commended the efforts of VICBHE in developing the capacity of directors of academic planning and other members of the university community in essential areas.
In his address, Professor Peters, emphasised the importance of integrating IT tools and solutions into everyday operational activities.
He noted that the beneficiaries of the concluded training programme, namely, directors of academic planning, vice chancellors and senior academics, would find the skills useful for their daily tasks.
In his remarks, one of the resource persons, Mr Damilola Bamiro, tasked the graduating class to focus on making an impact in their respective institutions by implementing the concepts taught in the course.
He outlined six keywords encapsulating effective data management practices as: transparency, trust, efficiency, innovation, collaboration and timeliness.
He further noted that “the university or organisation of the future is where the vice chancellor or chief executive looks at multiple dashboards taking inputs from different sources to make impactful decisions.”
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