Preamble
The theme of the 16th University of Lagos Annual Research Conference and Fair was Unlocking the Future: Rethinking Higher Education. The Conference was declared open by the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos: Prof F.O. Ogunsola OON, FAS on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, after the welcome address by the DVC (A&R) and Chairman, Central Research Committee, Prof B.O. Oboh. The conference featured a keynote lecture, two plenary paper presentations and a guest lecture. There were various oral and poster paper presentations in Humanities, Sciences and Multidisciplinary Research.
Keynote Lecture
The keynote lecture on the conference theme: Unlocking the Future: Rethinking Higher Education for Sustainability was delivered by Prof Iain Gillespie (Principal and Vice Chancellor of University of Dundee, Scotland). In the lecture, he emphasized that the purpose of the University must move from that of elitist to that of social purpose which includes:
- Learning and Teaching: This must promote education and skill acquisition. The development of skill sets must be strongly promoted if the education will be of good quality, relevant and patronage will be enhanced. The learning and teaching process must be supportive, equitable, agile and responsive.
- Research with Impact: The research outputs from the universities that will meet social purpose must be of high quality, attract global respect, recognition and funds.
- Engagement and Enterprise: This third purpose is the place making purpose of the university. There should be a strong motivation for a university that will achieve its social purpose to translate research and innovation to start ups, products and commercialization in aid of the development agenda of its nation. The balance between the government’s need for capacity building, economic development and the university’s need for knowledge creation must be achieved. National development will be achieved when universities are engaged in innovation priorities, forming of innovation cluster and investments among others. Hence, universities must be resilient, trusted and transparent to achieve these. He gave specific examples of the University of Dundee’s engagement with creation of startups in UK and in drug development.
The Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, while declaring the conference opened, challenged the university community to start taking responsibility for the evaluation of the social purpose of the University with respect to capacity building and other critical aspects of the University’s functions.
Plenary Paper 1
This session was chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services), Prof V.A. Atsenuwa. She expressed her deepest concern for the brain drain Nigeria is experiencing and the danger it poses to unlocking the future of education and development in our nation. Before ushering in the plenary paper presenter, she posited that, in rethinking higher education to unlock the future, we need to reverse the brain drain to brain gain in our niches.
The plenary paper titled: Migration for Development: Brain Drain, Brain Gain was delivered by Prof Jo Angouri of the University of Warwick, UK. She emphasised that the concept is not to be seen as a lateral one but that of multiphasic interactions in the era of globalisation which calls for serious rethinking on the mode of operation in the university system. The conversion of the brain drain to gain will require global networking, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research engagement and global research fund attraction among others.
Plenary Paper 2
This session’s Chair, was the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services), Prof L.O. Chukwu. He stated that, Higher Education in Nigeria would only have a better future, if Nigerian universities begin to explore ways of diversifying international and industry Collaborations. The role of industries in balanced knowledge creation must be promoted.
The Plenary Paper 2 on Multidisciplinary Collaboration for Novel Research and Development was delivered by Mr. Adebisi Adeoti, the West African Managing Director of Dow Chemical. He itemized some of the areas where Industry-Academia collaboration will be very valuable for development, such as: co-creation of knowledge through Research and Development (R&D); Co-creation and delivery of industry-relevant curriculum for appropriate skill acquisition and capacity building; Promotion of start-ups; Standing as bridge between Industry and regulators; and Helping in addressing production and operation challenges of the industries among others. Citing examples of how his company, Dow Chemicals, has engaged with some Nigerian universities in terms of research funding and student work experience, he emphasised that industries, like any other funding bodies, will only put their funds where their interests are. He encouraged Universities to have the flexibility and adaptability to accommodate these industry interests in their curricula. He also challenged the university system to be flexible in closing the gap between theory and practice and to address the challenge of transparency and accountability of research grant funds. During the interactions, Prof. Gbenga Nubi, Director, RMO, University of Lagos stated that the achievement of sustainable collaborative inputs towards unlocking the future, will require a paradigm shift that will break down the concept of “Ivory Towers” into that of a “Football Field” where all stakeholders and participants will have a “level-playing ground”.
Guest Lecture
The guest lecture session was chaired by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics & Research), Prof B.O. Oboh. She identified the tendencies for future outbreaks of infectious viral diseases, because of continuing urbanization which increasingly brings the animals, which are vectors of these viruses, closer to the human population. She praised the response of the Nigerian and Lagos State Governments to the last pandemic and attributed that to lessons learnt from the previous Ebola outbreak.
The guest lecture was presented by Kate Kelland, Chief Scientific Writer of Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). The lecture, titled Disease X: The 100 days Mission to End Pandemic was a review of the book authored by her. She underscored the importance of using the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic for readiness against future occurrences. The development of COVID-19 vaccine took over 300 days after the virus had affected tens of millions of people globally with enormous fatalities. She posited that though previous pandemics had occurred centuries apart, the frequency of such may be higher in this dispensation of globalisation and learning to respond quickly to future occurrence will be life-saving. During interactions, concerns were raised about the politics of distributions of vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic and also with production of vaccines in Africa.
Oral and Poster Presentations
There were various oral and poster presentations in Humanities, Sciences and Multidisciplinary Research areas. They all showcased the development of indigenous knowledge and technology for national development in various areas. There were advocacies for improved knowledge creation, promotion of local content and development of quality local products. Funding of research for knowledge-based economy was identified.
Recommendations:
University of Lagos
From the various presentations at the conference, the following questions and recommendations are put forward to the University of Lagos for consideration:
- An empirical study of what the drivers of the university’s growth in all its core social purpose areas should be carried out. There is a need to strengthen the positives and address the negatives. There should be an evaluation of the quality of research and innovation; global recognition and reputation. The supportive, equitable, agile and responsive nature of our learning and teaching process must be re-assessed and improved on to drive patronage.
- The need to evaluate, in very clear terms, the impact of brain-drain on University of Lagos. There must be measures put in place to convert this to gains. There must be discussions around rethinking the operation model of University of Lagos in teaching, learning, curriculum development and research. Incentives to promote global networking, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research engagements, international collaboration should be considered.
- University of Lagos may need to re-evaluate and be aggressive with her industry funds attraction drive. Though the University is doing well with respect to foreign grants attraction, there is the need to promote more industrial collaborations and grant attraction for R&D, co-creation of knowledge, as well as production with both local and multinational corporations in Nigeria.
Government
The need for Government to recognise that unlocking of the future of the nation requires a serious rethinking of the Higher Education system was identified by many of the presenters at the conference. Therefore, the following recommendations are made to the government of Nigeria:
- A paradigm shift towards a knowledge-based economy from the current resource-based economy must be pursued through the facilitation of universities’ transformation into social purpose-driven universities. Incentives must be given to universities that are making impact in the identified social purpose areas. Funding model should be reviewed toward performance-based institutions, especially with respect to quality training, capacity building and skill acquisition to provide quality research and innovation.
- The migration rate in the university system calls for an urgent intervention as the current brain drain poses great danger to the university system and the nation’s future. The conversion of the drain to gain is limited by the inability of the university to operate without interference. The university system cannot network, engage Visiting Professors and expertise to address some of these drains or even replace such because of the poor pay and the external limiting forces.
- The funding model currently adopted by TETFUND may need to be revised. The model should consider seeking industries’ input in grant awards since they contribute the money in form of tax.
- Likewise, a performance-based model of funding needs to be adopted in which payments are made for publications made in accredited journals (Q1 to Q4) by TETFUND. Universities will be made to submit evidence of journals published in these accredited journals annually and grant funding given to promote more research outputs to the University and authors at an approved ratio by the funder. The funds granted to the authors will be applied to only research-related expenditures. This model will promote more knowledge creation and quality publications.
- TETFUND may want to consider a funding model that frequently evaluates all researchers in the higher education system in Nigeria by categories and funds each category annually with expectations of quality outputs before next funding.
- Funds for promotion of Start-ups and commercialization of research outputs should also be instituted. Patents and commercialization funds should be introduced into TETFUND grants. The grant should serve as venture capital to hold a percentage of the Start-up and also provide consultancy services to the start-up until the point they are able to public through Initial Public Offers (IPOs)
Dr. Foluso O. Agunbiade
For: The Communique Committee
