From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri

Vice Chancellor, Al-Ansar University, Maiduguri, Borno State, Professor Abubakar Kundiri, believed that without the Tertiary education Trust Fund (TETFund), most public universities would have been in total decay. He also argued that high tuition fees charged by private universities are necessary to cover the high cost of running the institutions.

In this interview, he spoke on these and other related issues. Excerpts

There has been an upsurge in the number of private universities in Nigeria. What do you think is responsible for this?

When you look at the number of secondary school leavers seeking admission into tertiary institutions, especially in Borno State and entire North East, you will understand why Al-Ansar University and indeed most other private universities came into existence. Al-Ansar like most private universities was established basically to provide additional access to the teeming secondary school leavers or those yearning to have admission into tertiary institutions.

Over the years, we have had the challenge of insurgency in North East. To a great extent, this affected academic activities not only in tertiary institutions but also in schools generally.

As a result, there is influx of many secondary school leavers seeking admission for higher education. Al-Ansar has come out as the first private university in Kanem Borno, to provide such access.

How have you been bridging the gap?

Most of the senior academic staff in the private universities is also from the public universities. I was a senior lecturer in the University of Maiduguri before I moved to Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, to help establish it. I was appointed vice chancellor there. I then moved to the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State. There, I completed my term as vice chancellor.

Later I moved to the National Universities Commission (NUC) as a visiting professor and was appointed Vice Chancellor of Al-Ansar. So, we are all part of ASUU and the whole struggle is to ensure improvement in our university education and the quality of graduates.

In the past, people were not keen in sending their children to school outside the country because there was quality in our institutions and the facilities were good. Back then academic quality was very high. I remember when I was an undergraduate we had lecturers from across the globe teaching us.

Today, the standard has deteriorated. There is deterioration in the facilities in most of these tertiary institutions. If not for the intervention of TETFund, which is the offshoot of the ASUU struggle, we would have seen serious decay. There is systematic decay in our public universities.

But then, the private universities were not established to compete or provide alternative to the public universities. If you look at the number of students applying to the University of Maiduguri and the Borno State University, many can›t get admission. They cannot admit all the qualified candidates. 

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You have been vice chancellor of two federal universities. What are you going to do differently at Al-Ansar?

I am focusing on new courses in line with current trends and future growth. Being the first private university in Borno and Yobe states, we have introduced some new courses like Technology Procurement Management, Cyber Security and other digital technology courses. Where we want to make things differently is by giving our students skills such that they are equipped when they graduate, they don’t have to start looking for white collar jobs.

They can develop business plans on their own and perhaps, approach financial houses for facilities and support. We are looking at how we can impart skills to our students rather than given them mere certificates. We are reviewing our curriculum and we will continue to do that.

How will you achieve this goal given the current economic challenges in the country, the poor economic condition of people in Borno, your host state and the insurgency that has lasted for more than a decade?

Funding private universities is usually provided by the owners. That is why the fee charged in the private school is higher than public one. Nevertheless, what we charge in Al-Ansar is less compared to other private universities in Abuja and the other parts of Southern Nigeria. This is why our fee is a bit modest looking at the economic situation in the area.

As an institution based in an environment that has experienced violence and Boko Haram insurgency, does the university have course on counter-terrorism or security?

Yes, we do. Cyber Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution are just two of such innovations we are introducing. In future, we are planning to establish a whole centre that will deal with the study of insurgency. We will not just teach our students but we will also conduct research into some of the causes of this problem, so that solution can be provided.

This is the strategic role of the university for teaching and research. There is also community service. We have to impart whatever we research into the community.

In addition to some of the courses we offer, we are considering the possibility of introducing IJMB (Interim Joint Matriculation Board), the first in North East. We are already working on that.

Also Centre for Distance Learning, to ensure people study within the comfort of their homes. We have been given approval by the NUC to start Medicine and Surgery programme. The number of students wanting to study Medicine is high but the space is limited. Our teaching hospital is at advanced stage of construction

Can this private initiative be sustained in this environment?

Nobody has tried this here before to tell us that it failed. But we try to do things differently. I had the privilege of starting a university from the scratch. Then I went to Wukari in Taraba State where even lectures were held under trees because we had no classrooms.

No lecture theatre and no offices for lecturers. But I can tell you the story is different today. Interestingly, the recent ranking placed the university even higher than University of Maiduguri.