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Clement Idoko | Abuja
THE executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, has called on the directors of the four Inter-University Centres (IUCs) in the country to work assiduously to revive the centres in order to meet up with the challenges of the 21st century.
Rasheed, while speaking at a meeting with the directors and chairmen of the boards of the IUCs in Abuja expressed dismay that none of the centres had achieved half of what it should have recorded in terms of giant strides.
He noted that some of the challenges impeding the development of the agencies could be associated with the inconsistency of government’s policies, insisting that the centres must actualise the purpose for which they were created in the first place.
The four Inter-University Centres are: The National Mathematical Centre, Sheda, Abuja; National Institute of Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Nigerian Arabic Language Village (NALV) and Nigerian French Language Village (NFLV), Badagry.
He revealed that the NUC had started the journey towards reviving the centres with the appointment of highly qualified academics who had distinguished themselves to chair the boards of the centres as well as the engagement of qualified academics to manage the day-to-day affairs of the centres.
Rasheed observed that the centres had been under-utilised as it appeared that they did not focus on the goals and rationale behind their establishment, urging them to redefine exactly what the centres ought to be; their focus as well as vision and mission through the amendment of the laws to enable them perform optimally.
Professor Rasheed explained that the IUCs were more than just mere departments in the universities as presently treated, as there are enough departments of Arabic and French languages as well as those of Mathematics and Nigerian languages in different universities.
He stated that more importantly, the centres were established to serve as think-tanks for the government, industry and private sector by meeting their needs and demands to ensure growth and development of the critical sectors of the economy as related to each centre, stressing that for this reason, the need for research was crucial.
The NUC chief advised the directors to collaborate with universities that offer programmes that are related to the centres saying that the commission could only recognise them as degree-awarding institutions after the amendment of their laws to that effect, and that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) can thereafter give them some interventions
The executive secretary said that the commission would help them through the Transnational Education (TNE), by bringing good foreign universities to collaborate with the centres on French, Arabic and Mathematics with the exchange of both the lecturers and students, and that they could mount a programme together in Masters and PhD.
He directed the head and director of each centre to articulate their challenges and promised that he would help them to meet with the Minister of Education (HME) so as to brief him on their journey so far.
Earlier, in his remarks, the chairman of the board, National Institute of Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Professor Francis Eghokhare, informed the NUC executive secretary that the centres were not properly integrated in the Nigerian University System (NUS) and that they needed all the privileges enjoyed by the Nigerian universities to be replicated to them.
He added that the centres were often treated as parastatals and not as IUCs, pleading with the executive secretary to use his good office to bring them to the forefront in all ramifications, so as to be at par with the universities.
Professor Egbokhare thanked the executive secretary on behalf of the chairman and directors of other centres for inviting them during the 2022 retreat of the commission with vice chancellors.
He affirmed that the retreat had really reawakened and exposed them to so much information and impetus that would definitely aid them in the discharge of their core mandates.
The directors of other IUCS also made individual presentations concerning the peculiarities of their centres with respect to what would make them more efficient and more productive in line with their core mandates.
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