By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Government at the weekend released a White Paper on the report of the visitation panel to the Lagos State University, Ojo with a vow to reverse the dwindling fortunes of the institution.

The Lagos State Head of Service Mr. Adesegun Ogunlewe, in a statement said the white paper based on the panel’s submission among other issues chronicled the need for the senate of the school to embark on clearance of backlog of unissued certificates.

The white paper emphasized the need to improve the University’s record keeping process by using Information Technology for the purpose of improving admission, registration, attendance, examination, marking of scripts, issuance of results and transcript.

Other recommendations includes; the establishment of proper relationship between the Students Affairs Office and the Students Union while directing that the office of the Student Affairs be place under the Office of the Vice Chancellor.

It also called for the establishment of two state owned universities, increased tuition fees, a paradigm shift from Faculty to Collegiate System, recommending that the College of Medicine and Faculty of Engineering and Technology should operate the system while all others should run as Faculties.

Although the paper is silent on the appointment of a substantive Vice – Chancellor to replace Professor Lateef Hussain who was sent on compulsory leave in the wake of the crises in the institution , the State Government lauded the holistic approach adopted by the panel which it acknowledged  consulted widely with stakeholders with a view to coming up with long-lasting solutions to the problems.

The white paper also contained the findings, observations and recommendations of the visitation panel on each of the terms of reference, while reinstating commitment to achieving optimum performance in terms of infrastructure, staff training and manpower development so as to impact positively in the quality graduates produced by the institution.

It also acknowledged the need to improve the image of the University by directing the University authorities to liaise with the Ministries of Information and Strategy, Transportation and Office of the Special Adviser on Education to work out modalities for the re-branding.

The paper posited that the government accepted the recommendation of the National University Commission to abolish the LASU external campus system with effect from 2012 and gradual phasing out of existing student population.

It directed the Governing Council and the Senate to ensure that the highest standard of education is delivered to the existing students.

It would be recalled that the visitation Panel was set up by the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, in December 2009 as a result of the crises which paralyzed academic and non-academic activities in the institution.

The committee was chaired by Justice Olaseinde Silva (rtd), while other prominent professionals and technocrat served as members.