THE CHALLENGES OF BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS OR SERVICE-INTENSIVE UNIVERSITY by O. A. Bamiro

1. THE CHALLENGES OF BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS OR SERVICE-INTENSIVE UNIVERSITY by O. A. Bamiro Professor of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Technology University of Ibadan oabamiro@yahoo.com Academic Summit of the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti held on Wednesday, 3rd February, 2016.

2. “…Economy may be a useful slogan for an election campaign, but it is misleading in setting the priorities for sustainable development. It’s not primarily the economy, nor money, that makes the world go round and determines progress in human well being. Much more important than the content of people’s wallets is the content in their heads. And what is in our heads is formed and enhanced by education which, in turn, helps fill the wallets, improves health, improves society and the quality of institutions, strengthens resilience at all levels and even makes people happier…” Bill Clinton, former President of America

3. Universities everywhere require leadership and expertise capable of participating in an increasingly complex and globalised world. Universities can demonstrate “world-class” thinking and policy development in the sense that they employ state-of-the-art solutions to pressing challenges of the twenty first century. One of these solutions is the development and implementation of a strategic plan. Institutions must “think” globally without losing sight of their national and local environments. Altbach

4. A service-intensive university, as distinct from the narrow perception of a world-class university, applies and also imbibes in its graduates, research-driven world-class thinking to the analysis and provision of solutions to the socio-economic problems of a nation state, thereby guaranteeing her sustainable development and a place of pride in the comity of nations. Femi Bamiro

5. Sustainable Development Sustainable development must target people and must be inclusive. By inclusive development I mean technological innovations that involve research results and skills upgrade that target both the formal and the usually marginalized and excluded informal sectors (usually micro and small enterprises) of the economy. And needless to say that EKSU must be producing graduates with the requisite skill sets to thrive in a knowledge-driven economy.

6. The Title of the Lecture THE CHALLENGES OF BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS OR SERVICE-INTENSIVE UNIVERSITY

7. The Challenge of an Institution becoming an Agent of Development Suppose, through an accident of present engagement, the Ekiti State Government and some other funding agencies and stakeholders are to open up to EKSU with an unprecedented level of funding that is almost akin to an open cheque – is the university ready to deploy world-class thinking in facing the challenges of moving the State, and by extension, the nation, to the next level of socio-economic development?

8. Consequently: This lecture is devoted to defining unambiguously the concepts of “world-class university” or “Service-intensive university” , the challenges of building one, and exploring the transformative path that an institution such as EKSU can take.

9. THE STRUCTURE OF THE PRESENTATION • What are universities for? • Basic features of a world-class or service-intensive university • The challenge of transforming into a world-class or service-intensive university against the operational environment of the Nigerian university system • Concluding remarks

10. WHAT ARE UNIVERSITIES FOR? John Cardinal Newman’s century old idea was predicated on universities being seen as enclaves, separate from the everyday world; places where students and academics engaged in platonic dialogues and where the outcome for both was a deeper understanding of the world and their place in it.

11. Newman was adamantly against vocational courses (and research, for that matter). Newman described "practical knowledge" as "a deal of trash". He thought that medicine was too applied to be taught at a real university. >>>>>> Ivory Tower

12. What are universities for? Current Global Trend (1) In the last two decades, higher education worldwide has moved from the periphery to the centre of governmental agendas in most countries. Universities are now seen as crucial national assets in addressing many policy priorities, and as: sources of new knowledge and innovative thinking; providers of skilled personnel with credible credentials; contributors to innovation; attractors of international talent and business investment; agents of social justice and mobility; contributors to social and cultural vitality; and determinants of health and well-being. (Boulton) >>> Economic growth-oriented model >>> Triple Helix

13. Triple Helix at USA: Energy Sector • “...[W]e’ll evolve from a world of hydrocarbon dependency to a mixture of hydrocarbon and alternative energies use. Vast quantities of liquid hydrocarbons (oil and gas) will be left behind in the ground, just as solid hydrocarbons (coal) are being left behind today.” • Chris Gibson-Smith, Managing Director, BP, 25 Sept. 1998

14. Triple Helix at USA: Energy Sector “We’ve embarked on the beginning of the Last Days of the Age of Oil. Nations of the world that are striving to modernize will make choices different from the ones we have made. They will have to. And even today’s industrial powers will shift energy use patterns....[T]he market share for carbon-rich fuels will diminish, as the demand for other forms of energy grows. And energy companies have a choice: to embrace the future and recognize the growing demand for a wide array of fuels; or ignore reality, and slowly—but surely—be left behind.” Mike Bowlin, Chairman and CEO, ARCO, and Chairman, American Petroleum Institute, 9 Feb. 1999

15. Triple Helix at USA: Energy Sector “There have already been two oil crises; we are obligated to prevent a third one. The fuel cell offers a realistic opportunity to supplement the ‘petroleum monoculture’ over the long term. All over the world, the auto industry is working in high gear on the fuel cell. We intend to be the market leader in this field. Then we will have the technology, the secured patents and the jobs on our side. In this manner, we will optimize conditions for profitable growth.” Jürgen Schrempp, Chairman of the Board of Management, DaimlerChrysler, Nov. 2000

16. Triple Helix in Nigeria? The above Triple Helix at play in USA is to be compared to our government’s several declarations on economic diversification aimed at reducing our dependence on oil as a major source of revenue. The identified key sector to achieve this is agriculture. But what has government done to bring the key stakeholders in the Triple Helix on board to address the challenges along the value chain of agriculture?

17. What are universities for (2) ? Notwithstanding their diversity of functions, governments focus on the presumed direct economic role of universities based on the assumption that there is a direct, linear in-out relationship between economic outcomes and investment in university research - particularly in science - which has produced welcome investment, and while many governments are asking "how can we make investments in universities that will help us out of the recession?”. There is a temptation for universities to promise what we cannot deliver.

18. “…this is a something for something deal. This is not just a closing of the gap. It is an investment by the Scottish government” Mark Batho, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) while announcing £1.02 billion of funding in 2012/2013 for the 19 Scottish HEIs.

19. The SFC and individual universities had to draw up agreements on areas such as access, retention, flexible degrees, the employability of students and translating research into more opportunities for Scottish business. “… sanctions would have to be part of the process. If it does not have any teeth it won’t be worth the paper it’s written on”. Bartho

20. What are universities for (3) ? The university's concern is 'useful knowledge', but not merely with the immediately applicable - a university is a resource for an unknown future. A university that moulds itself only to present demands is one that is not listening to its historians. Today's preoccupations are inevitably myopic, often ephemeral, giving little thought for tomorrow. (Boulton) >>> Need to promote both basic and applied research.

21. Wet Blankets • “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1959. • “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Western Union internal memo, 1876.

22. Wet Blankets • “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” • David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920’s. • “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” • H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927. • “Heavier than air flying machines are impossible”. • Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895.

23. Wet Blankets • “The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” • Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project. [And, of course, the bombs more than went off. Ask the Japanese.] • “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” • Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. France

24. Wet Blankets • “Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.” • Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and the father of television. • “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” • Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US office of patents, 1899.

25. What are universities for (4)? The central role of a university is education. Generation by generation universities serve to make students think. They do so by feeding and training their instinct to understand and seek meaning. True teaching disturbs complacency. They are taught to question interpretations that are given to them, to reduce the chaos of information to the order of an analytical argument and to seek out what is relevant to the resolution of a problem. They learn progressively to identify problems for themselves and to resolve them by rational argument supported by evidence: and they learn not to be dismayed by complexity but to be capable and daring in unravelling it. [Boulton]

26. Unfortunately, rather than ensuring that our graduates are adaptive, competent and intellectually bold, we increasingly focus on developing highly specific technical skills deployed in predictable settings. We have been concerned with: the derivatives rather than the fundamentals; what is learned rather than how it is learned; training for the short term rather than education for life. [Boulton] The challenge is – how do we nurture that culture in our students of problem identification and thinking through its solution?

27. What are universities for (5)? Research or scholarship are essential to the university enterprise only if they are intimately associated with the educational process. Research-only or teaching-only staff undermines the rationale for university research.

28. Teaching and Research The best research and the best teaching depend upon a culture and individual attitudes that value curiosity, skepticism, serendipity, creativity and even genius. They are values that are crucial to the university educational process at its most profound, and are most readily acquired in an environment of free-ranging speculation and research. On the other hand, the transfer of research-derived understanding into society by graduates who embody it is probably the most powerful vector by which it reaches society; more important than publications, than spin-outs and technology transfer offices (Boulton)

29. If my experience at the University of Ibadan is anything to go by, the reward system is yet to give teaching the pride of place. Promotions of academic staff are decided largely by measurable research output. This is not far removed from the fact that while research outputs are measurable in terms of quality and quantity of publications, attempts to introduce a measure of teaching capability or effectiveness of lecturers through instruments such as students evaluation of their lecturers have met with stiff opposition. [Bamiro]

30. What are universities for (6)? Universities are important parts of the modern innovation process, but not as its drivers. Universities have a different role, which is to help create an environment sympathetic to and supportive of innovation, and particularly where there is internationally-competitive research and excellent graduates. They produce centers of creativity that attract research-intensive companies and investment into a region, and help catalyze innovation in indigenous businesses.

31. What is the state of our Industrial Competitiveness? According to the 2009 Africa Competitiveness Report, 23 African countries out of the 31 that were surveyed remain at the most basic stage of the competitiveness index of a factor-driven economy (that is, one whose ability to compete is based on unskilled labour and natural resources). Only five countries – Algeria, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa and Tunisia - have reached the second stage of competitiveness – the efficiency driven stage (which is driven by efficient goods, sophisticated labour and financial markets, a large market size and the ability to utilize technology effectively). No African country has reached the innovation-driven stage, that is, a stage based on an ability to compete with new and unique products, and the use of sophisticated production driven competition.”

32. Import substitution and the 2012 Agric Budget The then Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina challenged all stakeholders, including research establishments, to join hands in achieving complete replacement of imports of rice especially while diversifying the industrial uses of cassava. We probably all witnessed President Jonathan eating the cassava bread from the IITA Lab! But who will address the value chain – from the cassava farm to the processing bay and the bakeries for onward transmission of the innovative cassava bread to our dining tables?

33. Concluding statement by Boulton “It is my contention that slipshod thinking about the roles that universities can play in society is leading to demands that they cannot satisfy, whilst obscuring their most important contributions to society, and, in the process, undermining their potential. To see them simply as instruments for immediate economic benefit is a fundamental error. To confine universities to such a mechanical place in the progress of society is to diminish them; it invites doomed attempts to measure intangible effects by unyielding metrics; it offers only eventual disillusion. We should not be rushed by a combination of inducements, urgency, and regulation into accepting an identity proffered from our ambient world, but must engage with it to define a commonly accepted purpose”.

34. BASIC FEATURES OF A WORLD-CLASS OR SERVICE-INTENSIVE UNIVERSITY

35. Relevance in terms of universities transforming into world-class …The education sector is facing enormous challenges. The effective resolution of these challenges is a pre-condition for our nation's development. As you are aware, the present Administration is committed to the realization of the 7-Point Agenda and our national vision of becoming one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020. In order to succeed, the nation needs world class manpower, possible only through world class institutions. This calls for strategic investment towards improving the teaching and learning environment as well as the quality of lecturers in our institutions. [Dr. Sam Egwu , HME April 2009]

36. Although it is globally acknowledged that Nigeria is a nation of great potentials, our institutions that were once highly rated in the world and a source of national pride have lost such pre-eminence. Today, in the aggregate web ranking of world universities, no Nigerian University ranks among the top 50 in Africa and no Nigerian laboratory ranks among the top 1,000 in the world. Our ability to produce world-class manpower and conduct serious research for national development is, therefore, adversely affected. This situation is unacceptable and must be reversed.

37. The issue of transformation to a world-class university is examined against the background of answers to the following pertinent questions: • What is global ranking? • What is a World-Class University? • What are the attributes of a World Class University? • What is the checklist at the institutional level in quest of transforming to a world class university?

38. Global Ranking- What is it? Ranking of world universities published by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) in September 2005 created a major controversy in Malaysia when it showed the country's top two universities slipping almost 100 places compared with those of the previous year. Notwithstanding the fact that the big drop was mostly the result of a change in the ranking methodology - which was a little known fact and of limited comfort - the news was so traumatic that there were widespread calls for the establishment of a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the matter.

39. A few weeks later, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya stepped down. This strong reaction was not out of character for a nation whose current Ninth Development Plan aims at shaping the transformation of the country into a knowledge-based economy with emphasis on the important contribution of the university sector. Jamil Salmi

40. Ten Topmost Ranked Universities: 2012

41. Shanghai Ranking Criteria for Universities

42. Times Higher Education Supplement (THES)(13 PIs grouped into 5 areas) • Teaching: the learning environment (30% of overall ranking score) • Research: volume, income and reputation (30%) • Citations: research influence (30%) • Industry income: innovation (2.5%) • International outlook: staff, students and research (7.5%)

43. Universities are excluded from the THES World University rankings if they do not teach undergraduates; if they teach only a single narrow subject; or if their research output amounted to fewer than 1,000 articles between 2006 and 2010 (200 per year) • The Universities that feature among the top 100 in the world rankings have been labelled “World-Class Universities”.

44. What is a world-class university? ‘everyone wants one, no one knows what it is, and no one knows how to get one’ Altbach 2004

45. “…notwithstanding the serious methodological limitations of any ranking exercise, world-class universities are recognized in part for their superior outputs. They produce well-qualified graduates who are in high demand in the labour market; they conduct leading-edge research published in top scientific journals; and in the case of science-and-technology-oriented institutions, they contribute to technical innovations through patents and licences.” Jamil Salmi

46. University of California, Davis USA(Sponsored Research Activities 2007) • Awards Received 5,932 • New Awards Received 2,218 • Continuations or Supplementals 3,714 • Grant and Contract Dollars Awarded $500,010,976 • Gifts for Research $18,765,148 • Total Sponsored Research Funding $518,776,124 • Projects Active During the Fiscal Year 6,170 • Faculty Receiving Awards 1,889 • Sponsors 926

47. What is a service-intensive university? Put simply, a service-intensive university (SIU) is one that deploys its locally and globally-acquired competencies to identify and address national problems geared towards achieving the socio-economic development of the nation state. Of cardinal importance and focus is the nation state, particularly the challenges it faces in taking its rightful place in the comity of nations.

48. Therefore, becoming an SIU is a matter of critically identifying various developmental problems and making deliberate effort to acquire, from all sources – local and global - the capability to solve such problems. Thus the concepts of world-class university and service-intensive university are not mutually exclusive. It is a matter of possible differences in focus and intensity in the development and areas of deployment of teaching and research capabilities.

49. World Class University (WCU) or Service-Intensive University (SIU) According to Pai Obanya: SIU paradigm is not in total disagreement with the research intensive posture of WCU. It is instead an attempt at enhancing the social responsiveness of universities in Africa. This means that the development challenges of Africa must be the core concern areas for African universities. Knowledge is the best tool for getting Africa out of underdevelopment. The knowledge arsenal of a university is derived from its – knowledge generation (or research), knowledge transmission (or Teaching), knowledge transfer (or responsive social engagement)

50. Attributes of a world-class University • Highly qualified faculty • Excellence in research • Quality teaching • High levels of government and non-government sources of funding • International and highly talented students • Academic freedom • Well-defined autonomous governance structures • Well-equipped facilities for teaching, research, administration and student life. • International reputation of the university • University’s contribution to society