Aggressive revenue generation, secret of our survival, Says EKSU VC, Bandele

The Vice Chancellor of the Ekiti State University, Prof Samuel Oye Bandele, has disclosed that the key secret of EKSU survival and successes recorded by his administration has been aggressive revenue generations through
establishment of some business ventures by his administration.

Prof. Bandele who made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists in Ado Ekiti described Business and research innovations, as the only potent weapons that can boost the ranking of the Nigerian universities with
its counterparts in advanced countries in view of the current economic development .

The Vice Chancellor emphasised that the only way the universities can subdue the perennial problem of underfunding causing poor rating of the Nigerian universities on webometric ranking , is by stepping up efforts that can bring appreciable increase in the revenue generations by higher institutions.

According to him, the monthly wage bill of the university stands at N500 million while the state government released a sum of N270 million as subvention, hence, the need to look for other way out for survival for the univetsity in a bid to be able to meet the demands of the university for proper functioning.

Bandele, who praised Governor Ayodele Fayose for considering issues relating to EKSU to be of high premium priority, appealed for more funding from the state in the overall interest of the university .

“The global economic recession makes it expedient for university managers to think outside the box. Our university is making aggressive drives in rice , water and block production. The EKSU Rice and EKSU Water are now making waves in Ekiti market while the bakery industry is in the pipeline.

“EKSU Fish, Cow and poultry are also doing well while the moribund university press has been resuscitated to generate funds for the university.

“We know it will be difficult to increase the tuition fee, I won’t even dabble into that because the students may not want to hear that but if we fail to take all these actions, the university could not have been stable in terms of academic calendar due to incessant strikes we would have been witnessing.

“I want to thank members of ASUU, NASU and SSANU for their understanding. Though, they knew that I am a Vice Chancellor who places priority on workers’ welfare, they know I don’t joke with it, because it is their rights .

“When I came on board, I addressed the issues of outstanding promotions and allowances. Though, we have not been able to meet all our obligations to them, but we will try and ensure that no staff or student of this university suffers unduly for lack of fund”, he promised.

He said the National Universities Commission(NUC) has given the university the nod for the running of some lucrative courses like Insurance, Actuarial Science, Educational Technology , marketing, library studies , industrial relations , anatomy, physiology , tourism and entrepreneurial studies .

“Before we came on board, EKSU was no longer attractive to students because we only offered traditional courses. But with these new courses, our admission strength has gone up”.

Bandele added that he is planning to introduce the Faculty of Environmental Science, to prepare grounds for the running of more professional courses like Architecture, Building Engineering and
Estate Management by the university.

“We are also planning to stabilize the Medicine and Surgery course and to also ensure that the Faxculty of Pharmacy takes off before the end of my tenure”..