COMMUNIQUE of the 50th and 51st Meetings of the Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools of Nigerian Universities (CDPGS)

Posted on: Mon 01-08-2016

Communique of the 50th and 51st Meetings of the Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools of Nigerian Universities (CDPGS) Held at the Nigerian Turkish Nile University, Abuja, 25th - 27th January, 2016 and at the National Universities, Commission, Abuja, 1st - 4th June, 2016 Respectively.

Preamble

The 50' and 51' Meetings deliberated extensively on the issues that were raised during the 49' Meeting which was held at the University of Port-Harcourt from May 8" 2015. The theme of the meetings was on Postgraduate BasiciVlinimum Academic Standard (BMAS).

At different times, the hosts, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, DON, and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Nigerian-Turkish Nile University, Professor Stephen Adesina on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Huseyin Sert, and the Executive of CDPGS, corroborated on the quality expected of Postgraduate Training in Nigeria for national development and international recognition.

The keynote addresses reflected on the accountability, quality assurance and quality of teaching and research, that could only be assured by acquisition of Ph.D. certificate by all academic staff of the University of the 21' Century.

The presentation of talk on "Postgraduate Minimum Academic Standard" hinted that CDPGS would be engaged on some issues raised and discussed in finalizing the final copy for implementation.

The following salient issues emerged from the discussions:

Observations

1. There is need to strengthen the link between Universities and Industry in the areas of collaborative research, innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship.

2. There is significant room for improvement in the provision of adequate facilities such as information technology, infrastructure, functional laboratories and libraries that will encourage cuttingedge research.

3. Given the present national economic realities, Nigerian Universities are likely to face more severe funding constraints in the immediate future.

4. Most Nigerian Universities are still not globally visible as evident from the fact that none of them is in the top 1000 Universities in the world.

5. Application of National Universities Commission (NUC) BMAS instruments had commenced in some Universities, while many progammes are yet to be accredited with this instrument.

6. There is still no central record of enrolment and graduation statistics of postgraduate students trained across all Nigerian Universities.

7. There is disturbing trends of interference on issues bordering on admission requirements for higher degrees.

8. The need to implement the compulsory acquisition of Ph.D. degree as a condition for teaching and supervision of PG programmes in Nigerian Universities including Colleges of Medicine was observed.

9. Postgraduate programmes in Nigeria Universities were observed to be poorly funded.

Recommendations

Based on the above stated observations, the Committee recommends as follows:

i. Nigerian Universities should diversify efforts at securing research funding and promoting strategic alliances with partners in the industry, towards evolving solutions to national developmental priorities.

ii. Nigerian Universities should find creative ways of mitigating the likely funding constraints through improvement of internally generated revenue and other external funding sources.

iii. Nigerian Universities should consciously drive online visibility of their research outputs and other academic activities as a strategy for enhancing their global ranking.

iv. That NUC should hasten the implementation of accreditation of postgraduate programmes across all Nigerian Universities.

v. All Postgraduate Schools in Nigerian Universities should embrace uniform admission requirements as stipulated by the NUC minimum Benchmark. However, admission requirements approved by individual university senate should be respected.

vi. All Postgraduate programmes in Nigerian Universities, including those in Colleges of Medicine, should strictly comply with the acquisition of Ph.D. degree as minimum requirement for teaching and supervision as enshrined in the NUC Benchmark.

vii. The funding formular of 40:30:30 proposed by NUC should be seriously considered and adopted by Universities.

Signed:

Prof. S. Bamidele Sanni

Chairman, CDPGS & Dean,

School of Postgraduate Studies,

Benson ldahosa University,

Benin-City, Edo State

Prof. Solomon O. Akinboye

Honorary Secretary, CDPGS & Dean,

School of Postgraduate Studies,

University of Lagos, Akoka,

Yaba, Lagos

ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED

get professional help

anytime & anywhere

download our official app

App Store Google Play