He spoke in Abuja on Monday at a meeting which reviewed post graduate programmes in our universities.

The NUC scribe said, “the situation is even worse with private universities.
How can universities that have not been in existence for up to three years run postgraduate programmes?

What are the standards they are using?

That statement shows the acute shortage of doctorate degree holders required in the university system. The origin of the present situations can be traced to the long years of military rule and the devaluation of the naira.

Persistent under funding of the universities and the low value of the naira gave birth to brain drain. In the eighties and nineties many dons emigrated to various foreign universities around the world. Even at home many left the university system to join more lucrative sectors like the oil industry and the few blue chip companies.

During the military era many of the vice-chancellors did not allow their staff to go for doctorate degrees either on part-time or full time basis. Such vice-chancellors argued that there were no staff to teach the courses being taught by those junior lecturers that had only master’s degree. Those who embarked on Doctorate degree at that time had to go on what is called “day-release” or just do it almost illegally and the authorities pretended as it they were not aware.

The dearth of Doctorate degree holders is also traceable to the fact that some of the departments ran PHD degree programme for ten years, fifteen years or more. There were unconfirmed cases of full time, students who had to spend six years on a PHD programme, with should normally run for three years.

There were also cases of part-time students who spent fifteen years or more. Existing regulations governing registration for PHD were often disregarded.

Since 2002, the NUC has been doing a good job trying to rectify the anomalies created by the mismanagement of the university system by the military rulers. The NUC has stated that PHD ought to be the minimum teaching qualification in the university system.

This is the global trend. What Okojie is doing now is also in the right direction because private universities need to be careful of how they respond to the shortage of PHD degree holders. Private universities should not rush to go into postgraduate programmes less they find themselves in a big mess.

The shortage of PHD degree holders did not come overnight. It would not go suddenly. A gradual process would be required. Since the private universities are at present drawing staff from public universities that have been under funded for a long time, we would have to wait for some more time before the private universities can begin to respond minimally to the shortage of PHD degree holders.

A systematic fine-tuning of post graduate programmes would require better funding of public universities. We must get to a point where our universities can attract foreign academics. As at now even Ghanaian or Beninois academics would not want to come and teach in Nigeria not to talk academics from other far away places. The sad truth now is that our universities are not competitive.

They therefore are not attractive places for scholars outside our shores.
In fine-tuning the running of post graduate programmes NUC should take a wholistic look of all the programmes in all our universities. It should inspire the system towards programme harmonisation so that duplication of programmes in universities that are contiguous can be avoided.

This would lead to a reduction of over production qualified hands in some programmes and under production in some others as it is going on now. Private universities should be licensed within some broad definition of national goals of university education.

This is important because private universities can be hijacked by the logic of a market economy. The tasks ahead of the NUC is not an easy one as it is helpless in matters of funding which is a crucial factor in redressing the shortage of PHD degree holders.

Write Comment
Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
Name:
E-mail
Title:
Comment:
Code:*
	I wish to be contacted by email regarding additional comments

Be the first to comment on this article