MANAGING NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOTAL PERSON IN AN ERA OF ECONOMIC RECESSION Sunday T. Afangideh and Glory N. Amadi
International Journal of Social
Science and Management Development, Volume 7, Number 2, 2016
ISSN: 2856 – 2111
MANAGING NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES FOR
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOTAL PERSON IN AN ERA OF ECONOMIC RECESSION
Sunday
T. Afangideh and Glory N. Amadi
Faculty
of Education
University
of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, universities,
the world over, are saddled with the work of teaching, research and community
services, apart from what modern scholars now refer to as incidental functions.
In the area of teaching, universities see to the production of manpower who are
learned in the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the local, national and
international environments and who should be able to contribute to finding
solutions to problems of man and society. In the 21st century
society, which is observed to be immersed in
hydra-headed problems, among them
insecurity, war, menace of diseases and other social scourges, universities are
therefore supposed to produce men who can fathom the challenges. This can only
be done if their products can be all round individuals or what is referred to
as the total persons. Producing men and women of this category leaves much to
be desired on the shoulders of university administrators, especially at a time
when the economy is biting hard and if universities must not go into extinction
because of economic hardship, the managers of our universities must adopt
appropriate and amenable strategies for managing these institutions in the
interest of man and society. This piece is therefore an exposition on the
strategies for managing Nigerian universities in an era of economic recession
for the development of the total person for societal consumption.
Keywords: Management, Universities, Development, Total
Person, Economic Recession.
Introduction
The
universities are institutions of the society responsible for certain key
functions. Traditionally, these key functions include teaching, research and
community service and constitute what Obamanu (as cited in Afangideh &
Kpee, 2010) considers as the tripartite functions of the university. Apart from
these traditional functions, Nwideeduh and Afangideh (2013), and Afangideh and
Aleru (2014) have added what should be considered as additional roles for the
universities. For these scholars, universities also perform incidental
functions. Incidental functions of the universities are those things the
universities do that do not form part of
their traditional functions, but contribute to the survival and development of
mankind in the universities, and the society: Specially, incidental functions
of universities include running consultancies in Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), piggery, poultry and involvements in contract
researchers, which help or assist to
raise their revenue bases by way of increased internally generated revenue
(Afangideh & Aleru, 2013; Uche, 2011). In accepting this latter role,
universities have assumed the status of multifaceted institutions or what Eno
(1991) will refer to as omnibus institutionalized.
Arising from the foregoing perception
of the universities as learning institutions, society has come up with what may
be regarded as the new thinking about universities. In contemporary society,
universities are given various labels. These include centres of excellence,
centres of teaching, centres of information dissemination, problem solving
centres and brainstorming centres, apart from centres of internationalization.
Little wonder S. O. Oluwuo (Personal Communication, October 02, 2016) prefers
to see the universities as multifaceted international problems solution
centres. These descriptions confirm that universities are actually universal
learning institutions that study problems of the society to provide
evidence-based solutions to societal problems, for the benefit of man and
society.
Following from the foregoing analysis,
it appears that the universities as learning institutions appear to be in
trouble with themselves and the society which dictates what the
Managing Nigerian Universities for
the Development of the Total Person in an Era of Economic Recession
universities
should do at different epochs of time. This may be explained in the fact that
since the universities exist to salvage the society, the volume of work to be
done is dependent on the number of actual and perceived problems of society.
This implies that universities may at certain times suffer work-overload or be
underworked.
In line with this thinking,
universities seem to have assumed new roles. According to Robbins (as cited in
Anya, 2013), the modern day universities should be involved in functions as:
·
Instruction
in skills i.e promotion of professions;
·
Promotion
of the general powers of the mind i.e the intellect to produce cultivated men
and women;
·
Maintaining
research in balance with teaching since teaching should not be divorced from
the advancement of learning and the search for truth;
·
Transmitting
a common culture and common standard of citizenship- that is why the university
can serve as the conscience of the nation (p.08).
Apart from these, universities are
centres of individual, local, national, regional and global advancements and
development. Despite this general comment, it appears expedient to echo the
contributions of renowned chartered biologist and academic administrator Anya
O. Anya. In a convocation lecture presented in 2013 at the University of Port
Harcourt, Anya (2013) states thus:
It
is fair to state that university education could never address only one package
of aims, objectives, and missions across times, varied influences, some
political, some economic, some social and cultural do impinge on the
development of the university.( p.11)
Anya’s contribution therefore give
impetus to the traditional thinking of the universities as centres for
teaching, research and community services and the modern thinking that they
should perform incidental functions.
Consequently, as with the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Kenaw (as
cited in Anya, 2013) was right to comment that a university, like any other
educational and social institution is subject to change and transformation
along with and/or due to economic, political and cultural mutations of
differing degrees of intensity, at all levels, which could be local, national,
regional or global.
Globally, products from universities
are for the consumption of the society. Today, society seems to have gone
beyond complexities as consequences of the various natural and man-made
confrontations which require that a man that has the carriage should be able to
live in contemporary society. The man that can fit into the contemporary society
is the ‘total person’. According to Answers.com (2016), the total person is he
who is prepared to face the challenges of life, since the person’s environments
amount to everything. The total person concept insures that our wheel of life
rolls evenly and that we pay attention to all six areas of our life. For Bully
Xtreme.net (2016), the six areas of life are family and home, finance and
career, physical and health, spiritual and ethical, mental and education and
social and cultural. If the list from Bully. Exteme.net represents the true
concept of the total person, it is therefore suggestive of the fact that any
person who can handle the six areas of life, without having any as a forgone
alternative can actually fit into modern society. But, the question now is who
will produce this total person that can handle the six areas of life?
Attempts to provide answer(s) to the
rhetorical question seem to reflect further attempts to add to the functions of
the universities. This position may be explained in the fact that in the aspect
of teaching, the universities teach men, who should be able to stomach and
surmount the exigencies and challenges of the time. Therefore, the
universities, whether in its teachings, researches, community services and
incidental functions should strive to produce total men and women inspective of
prevailing political, social, and economic circumstances.
Traditionally, universities,
especially in Nigeria depend on sponsorship from government and other
alternative sources, as in the case of public universities, for their management.
For the private universities, sponsorship comes from the proprietors of these
institutions apart from other
International Journal of Social
Science and Management Development, Volume 7, Number 2, 2016
sources.
These two typologies of universities depend on their owners for resources for
managing the institutions whether for teaching, research, community services
and the incidental functions. The resources available for managing universities
depend on prevailing economic conditions and other sources and must be in line
with the country’s economic development. These other sources include donations
endowments, fees and what is typically referred to as internally generated
revenue.
Before the advent of 2016, Nigeria’s
economy was ranked as the best in Africa. This implies that it was the fastest
growing in Africa. However, with the advent of 2016, the economy nose-dived
into confusion and recession and since then, things have not been the same for
individuals, groups, organizations and government agencies, making government
to finally announce that the Nigerian economy had relapsed into recession.
According to Mckinney (2016), a recession is a general downturn in any economy
and is associated with high unemployment, slow gross domestic product and high
inflation. Put differently, the scholar furthers that, economic recession is a
period of general economic decline and is typically accompanied by a drop in
the stock market, an increase in unemployment and a decline in housing market
and is often blamed on federal leadership. Certain factors are responsible for
economic recession in societies. These forces include high interest rate,
increased inflation, reduced customers’ confidence, reduced real wages among
others.
When factors as mentioned above
prevail in societies, recessions set it, resulting in inflation, and other
forms of hardship on individuals, households, groups, organizations,
institutions and governments which make the management of resources difficult.
Conditions as these present managements challenges to the schools
(universities) administrators, who must manage the institutions to produce the
total person for the consumption of man and society, despite the recession or go
into extinction.
Since universities must survive and do
the biddings of the society, it becomes expedient that alternative efforts be
made to manage them. Therefore, the proceeding section of the discourse will
centre on the strategies and means for managing universities in an era of
economic recession.
Managing Universities during
Recessions
Administrators in Universities are of
two major categories. These are the staff administrators and the academic
administrators. The staff administrators are those who by virtue of their rules
of engagement and orientation are meant to harness the resources at the
disposal of the universities for the achievement of set goals while the latter
by virtue of their rules of engagement and orientations are meant to teach but
occupy administrative positions, since in academic institutions, academics must
give academic and bureaucratic leaderships as exemplified in
bureau-professional groups (Simkins, 1999; Afangideh, 2011). These leaders who
find themselves in academic and bureaucratic leadership positions grapple with
so much, to achieve set goals and it is the position of the present scholars
that they should involve themselves in alternative activities in order to
survive the economic tide and produce the total person as presented in the
proceeding paragraphs.
One strategy university administrators
should use in boosting their resources is that of involving the universities in
deliberate consultancy programmes. In doing these, universities will offer
professional services to individuals, groups, fellow institutions and
governments for a fee. This will help in boosting their financial prowess.
Typical examples of these are in the areas of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) services. Providing resource persons to speak on professional
areas and providing expert information to clients on issues of current
concerns.
In a recession, universities, as
learning institutions may run short of external goodwill, since they may not
have much at their disposal to throw around. In order to remain afloat,
universities should involve themselves in social responsibilities. Social
responsibility is an ethical framework which suggests that an entity whether an
individual or organization has an obligation to act for the benefits of the
society at large (Wikipedia, 2016). Being socially responsible implies
Managing Nigerian Universities for
the Development of the Total Person in an Era of Economic Recession
that
they play more than just an economic role in society, that are aimed at
demonstrating that corporate organizations are just capable as individuals of
being good citizens (Cole, 2006). As Wikipedia later states, social
responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform, so as to maintain a
balance between the economy and the ecosystem. In educational institutions,
Inengim (2013) found that schools involvement in social responsibilities help
them in running effective secondary schools. One may wish to find out what
universities should do to be socially responsible. Universities should reserve
admission quota for their immediate community interests, provide some social
amenities like water and electricity to them and embark on public enlightenment
programmes on matters affecting the communities. When they return part of their
proceeds to the communities through any regular and acceptable means,
communities do owe them as a duty to provide supports during periods of
financial distress.
Another strategy for managing
universities in periods of economic recession is universities’ involvements in
contract researches. Contract researches refer to the commercialization of
research results or conducting researches for individuals and organizations for
payments. This would help handle universities in periods of recession since
research breakthroughs constitute the
basis for technological advancement just as the volume of research activities
in any university or any research institution is used as a basis for providing
financial supports and as a criterion for developing staff in the academy.
These financial returns will always help the institutions to survive
recessional economic conditions.
A veritable instrumentality for
universities survival during periods of economic instability is the effective
utilization of alumni associations. They are typically referred to as Alumnae.
These groups represent the ex-students of any institution. When properly
constituted, it provides a reservoir of strengths, supports and feedback system
for all universities. Though Campbell (2008), notes that it is the least
exploited alternative source of getting supports, universities stand to gain
from them to survive when the economy is not balanced or seem to be receding.
Universities will always survive
hardship if they involve themselves in entrepreneurial activities.
Entrepreneurial activities involve organizing, managing and assuming the risk
of a business or enterprise, (Cole, 2006).Entrepreneurship has been given so
much attention and emphasis in higher education for reasons that it brings
financial returns to entities. A positive fall out is that, as a way of
improving the quality of graduates to make them learn skills and be able and
ready to take risks, the National Universities Commission (NUC) directed
universities to teach Entrepreneurship education. Universities stand to benefit
so much if they involve themselves in entrepreneurial activities. Little
wonder, Koko (2015) devotes her professorial inaugural lecture to a discussion
on University Business Management. Such activities include running bookshops,
fisheries, poultry, piggeries, water manufacturing companies, guest houses,
filling stations, printing press, publication outfits, among others. Returns
from these ventures can boost the financial stands of institutions for service
delivery.
Another very touching instrumentality
for use in managing universities in periods of recession is universities and
industries partnership. This arrangement involves joint venture partnership
between universities and industries in ventures that attract financial returns.
These ventures include, researches, business ventures, teacher professional
development, industrialization and community services. In a study on funding
universities through universities and industries collaboration, Wogu (2016)
found this symbiotic interaction to be a strong strategy for running
universities in periods of distress.
Arguably, universities in Nigeria are
either public or private. Clients of the public university system pay what is
technically referred to as other charges while their counterparts in private
schools pay tuition fees and other charges.
Definitionally, other charges connotes payments for sundry services
which universities render to them while tuition refers to payments taken as
charges for the teaching and research activities they are introduced to. By
implication, federal public universities are tuition free while those in state
public universities pay tuition and other
International Journal of Social
Science and Management Development, Volume 7, Number 2, 2016
charges.
However, the clients of the private universities pay for all these services
rendered to them. These payments can help cushion the effects of financial
stresses on learning institutions.
Finally, the management of resources
whether during balanced or recessional economies requires that, prudency should
be tempered with the process of management. Wastages should be reduced in line
with Amadi (2016), who found wastages in resources management in schools to be
the bane of secondary school administration. Abraham (2003) was therefore right
in calling for financial discipline among school administrators.
Conclusion
Universities as learning institutions
pre-occupy themselves with teaching, research and community services. However,
arising from the exigencies of the time, universities also perform what
scholars refer to as incidental functions, which also benefit man and society.
These traditional functions and those considered incidental are meant to help
produce men and women who have what it takes to stand the challenges of today’s
contemporary local, national regional and global societies. Also, universities
depend on sponsorships from their proprietors or owners, whose strengths to
fund the management of the institutions depend on the state of the economy.
When economies go into recession, university administrators should diversify by
delving into deliberate consultancy, social responsibilities, contract
researches, effective relationship with alumni associations, entrepreneurial
activities, universities/industries collaborations, collection of tuition fees
and other charges and prudent management of available resources. When
universities succeed in doing these, the development of the total person for
consumption by man and society is a guaranteed success, all things being equal.
This is the right time to do so.
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