CAPACITY BUILDING NEEDS OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AND GEORESOURCE RELATED INDUSTRIES IN AFRICA

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CAPACITY BUILDING NEEDS OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
AND GEO-RESOURCE RELATED INDUSTRIES IN AFRICA
AESEDA Symposium _at_ PSU 13th October, 2003

• PROFESSOR OYE IBIDAPO-OBE
• Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Lagos,
  Nigeria.

E-mail vc_at_unilag.edu
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Introduction

• Nigeria a country with vast resources
• Nigerian Universities and the National
  Universities Commission
• -Planning and oversight responsibilities

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The University of Lagos Experience

• University Vision
• The Vision of the university is To be a
  top-class institution for the pursuit of
  excellence in knowledge through learning and
  research, as well as in character and service to
  humanity.

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The University of Lagos Experience

• University Mission
• The Universitys Mission is To provide a
  conducive teaching, learning, research and
  development environment where staff and students
  can interact and compete effectively with their
  counterparts both nationally and internationally
  in terms of intellectual competence.

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The Unilag Heritage

• The university has been striving for the
  realization of its vision and mission statements
  since its establishment in 1962.
• The university currently runs 283 academic
  programmes, comprising 86 undergraduate
  programmes and 197 graduate programmes.
• There are 4315 total Staff members of which 962
  are academic, 1601 administrative and 1752 are
  support (junior) staff.

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Unilag Colleges and Faculties

• - Arts
• - Business Administration
• - Education
• - Engineering
• - Environmental Sciences
• - Medicine
• - Law
• - Science
• - Social Sciences
• - School of Postgraduate Studies

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The Unilag Heritage continued

• Student population in the university is currently
  over 41,792.
• The University of Lagos is the university of
  first choice among applicants for university
  admission in Nigeria.
• To date, the university has graduated over 80,941
  students.

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The Faculty of Engineering

• Established in 1964 with the Departments of
  Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
• The number of departments in the Faculty has
  since grown to seven, with the addition of
  Chemical Engineering and Surveying in 1973,
  Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and
  Systems Engineering in 2000.

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Departments with multiple Programmes

• Electrical and Electronics
• - Computer Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• - Gas and Petroleum Engineering.
• Demand driven programmes.

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Challenge of Funding

• Engineering education is an expensive venture
• - Over 80 percent of Unilag income is from the
  government.
• Current challenges
• - Dwindling subvention from government
• - Increased demand for engineering education
• -Student population
• 130 in 1962
• 41,792 in 2003

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Quality Assurance Issues

• How do you find the resources to sustain and
  improve quality and relevance in the face of
  above listed pressures?
• Answer
• - Funding Initiatives
• - Quality Enhancement Initiatives
• - Enhance useful knowledge content of university
  education

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Unilag Funding Initiatives

• Restructuring of income-generating units
• - the university consultancy outfit (Unilag
  Consult)
• - the University Guest Houses
• - Unilag Properties Management Board
• - Unilag Ventures
• - University Bookshop
• - Unilag Press.

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Unilag Funding Initiatives

• Outreach programmes
• Endowment fund
• Private sector collaboration

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Quality Assurance Initiatives

• Linkages with overseas universities
• Joint research
• Staff exchange
• Joint training of graduate students
• The AESEDA Initiative
• To tackle useful knowledge and quality content of
  education

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Expectation from AESEDA

• It is our hope that our association with a
  world-renowned faculty as available at the
  Pennsylvania State University, and other leading
  faculties from partnering institutions on AESEDA
  will enhance our capacity building objectives in
  Earth and Mineral Sciences through the transfer
  of knowledge and expertise to an emerging class
  of Petroleum and Gas Engineers and Managers in
  Nigeria.

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Areas of Capacity Building Needs

• Curricula Development
• Research and Laboratory Equipment
• Library Development
• Staff Development
• Students Exchange
• Research Windows
• Research Collaboration

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Specific Interests of Unilag

• Exploring opportunities for research and
  exploitation of solid minerals
• Research and development on food storage,
  preservation and processing
• Capacity development in waste management

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Interests in Water Resources

• Unilag is interested in pursuing studies and
  building capacities in
• Estimating Ground Water Resources (GWR)
• Pollution and Conservation of Ground Water
  Reservoirs Studies
• Pollution and Conservation of Surface Water
  Resources Studies.

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Crisis and Natural Disaster Management

• Moreover, the University of Lagos is interested
  in collaborative and interdisciplinary research
  with partnering institutions on
• Deforestation
• Gas Flaring Studies (including economic and
  environmental effects)
• Oil Spill Pollution Studies
• Waste Management and Disposal
• Disasters induced by Climatic Change, (flood,
  drought, etc.)
• Disasters induced by geological activity (soil
  subsidence, tremors, earthquakes, etc.)

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Other areas

• Other areas are
• - Distance Learning and the use of ICT (the PSU
  heritage).
• - The promise of ICT for Nigerian universities.
• -Problem of aging experts and limited funds in
  the face of increasing enrollment
• -Hope of improved infrastructure (telecomm,
  power supply, satellite, etc.)

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Goals of the Alliance

• To expand the intellectual horizons of all the
  institutions involved and create a
  multi-disciplinary research focus on Africa.
• To pursue strategic collaborations and linkages
  that will help build and strengthen research and
  higher education capacity in earth sciences and
  engineering in the partnering institutions.
• To create an environment of intellectual
  discourse among various disciplines that nurture
  diversity within Earth and Mineral Sciences.

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Beyond Academics
Beyond these educational issues, Nigeria
will also be interested in exploring
opportunities for more private sector investment
in Nigeria by Penn State private sector partners
who have been very active participants in oil,
gas, energy and solid minerals development in the
areas of adaptive research and technology.
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What Shall we take to the Alliance?

• Our existing core professionals who are trained
  in the best Colleges in the world.
• Better understanding of our environment, i.e.
  physical, social and cultural.
• University commitment in terms of facilities to
  ensure success of the alliance.
• Access and interaction with policy makers in
  Nigeria, West Africa and the entire African
  sub-region through ECOWAS, AU, and NEPAD.