Universities need strong international faculties — Augusto
Mr Bode Agusto, former Pro Chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), says universities in the country need strong international faculties to enable them compete during the era of robotics and artificial intelligence, among others.
Agusto gave the submission while delivering the Chief Arthur Mbanefo lecture series on Wednesday at the Arthur Mbanefo Digital Research Centre, University of Lagos.
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According to him, as funding improves, remuneration levels must be internationally competitive to ensure that the country’s universities attract the best and the brightest.
”Academics who are unwilling or unable to improve must be encouraged to leave.”All academics must be digitally literate and proficient on how to use technology to teach. There are a number of certifications that they can be encouraged to take.
”An example is the Microsoft Certified Educator which certifies that an educator is literate in global technology and can provide students which an education that combines technology and learning in the classroom, ” he said.
Agusto noted that the the fourth Industrial revolution combined digital, computing power, Biology and Bio-Chemistry to solve problems for humans.
He said that it was about using machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, block chain, robotics and the Internet of Things to scale and customise products and services to the needs of the consumers.
Augusto said there was an urgent need for the country’s universities to also be able to produce graduates that could compete during the era of 4th revolution by ensuring that they embrace technology to support tuition and research.
“This means that our universities need to align the courses they offer to the needs of the businesses and the development strategy of Nigeria.“It also means that apart from the core discipline of the graduate, he or she must acquire some skills that will be useful to him or her throughout life.
” I therefore advocate that every undergraduate in our universities should be certified in various areas of skills before they graduate.“In fact, no undergraduate should progress into the second year of studies without being certified as digitally literate,” he said.
According to him, it is equally important for Nigerian universities to overhaul their governance system, if they intend to produce graduates that will be able to compete during the 4th Industrial revolution.
He said that without such step, they would not be able to broaden their funding base and would therefore not be able to improve the faculty and infrastructure.Agusto said that they would also not be able to conduct impactful research and produce graduates whose skills were aligned with the needs of businesses and the development strategy of Nigeria.
“Simply put, Nigerian universities must adopt governance principles observed by companies listed on the stock exchange. Most big donors are going to be large companies and individuals who made large money building these large companies,” he said.
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