Public Lecture and Occasional Papers

Permanent URI for this collection

https://ir.unilag.edu.ng/handle/123456789/9474

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 113
  • Item
    Open Access
    Unilag and University Missions: Past, Future and the Globe
    (UNILAG Press, 2011-01-13) Alao, N.O.
    This lecture is designed to serve three purposes. The first is to advocate a more balance reflection on the achievement of this great institution by urging a new focus upon its mission and a placement in appropriate international institutional cohorts. The second is to argue that the current administration's concern with the institution's global ranking is well-placed and to suggest useful internal assessment schemes that may be helpful. Those who think that our first generation universities are mere local champions need to be reminded that today's global champions were themselves local champions for a long time and that being a local champion in a competitive situation involving more than one hundred higher institutions is no mean achievement. The third is hopefully to stimulate university-wide 'conversations' about subtler aspects of our mission by raising questions but giving only tantalizingly incomplete answers and by describing possible future paths. I am not asking for debates. I am rather asking for conversations. Rhetoricians and polemicists can win debates even while they fail to win the truth.
  • Item
    Open Access
    Health Research for Improved Health Care in Nigeria: Matters Arising
    (UNILAG Press, 2008-01-22) Salako, L.
    I feel greatly honoured to be considered worthy of being invit by this great university to give its Convocation Lecture for thi year. An occasion like this can be used by the lecturer to review his own contribution to society on one or more of his fields of endeavour. It can also be used to assess societal situation in the lecturer's areas of interest and proffer opinions on preferred future directions. I have chosen something in between. Having spent most of my working life in the field of health research, it occurred to me that I might use the opportunity afforded by this occasion to reflect on health research in our country, the successes and failures, the satisfactions and disappointments, the pleasures and problems, the lessons we have learnt and how we might proceed from where we are now.
  • Item
    Open Access
    Building a Successor-Generation: Reflections on Values and Knowledge in Nation Building
    (2017-01-23) Fayemi, K.
    It is with great pride that I participate in the 2017 Convocation ceremony of my alma mater - the University of Lagos - UNILAG. It is always fascinating to return to these scenic and historic grounds of learning, situated in one of the most dynamic cities in the world. I am most grateful to the authorities for honouring me with this hallowed platform to share a few thoughts with this set of graduating students in particular and the university community at large as this year's convocation lecturer. When the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rahamon A. Bello first notified me of my being selected to deliver the 2015/2016 convocation lecture, the first thought that came to my mind was "what would I say?" Convocation lectures traditionally have a defined structure. The university authorities usually invite an individual that has attained some measure of success in life, to share hislher story, with the hope that the graduating students can learn a thing or two about what to expect in the 'real world', as the larger society is often called. So I assume I am expected to speak about my experiences in life, in the more than three decades since I graduated, with the hope that those whose turn it is today can have an idea of at to expect out there. I am also supposed to dispe se some hope about the bright prospects that the olds, and offer some useful advice that would guide e going forward. Considering these expectations of the . ional convocation speech, I must apologise in advance eradventure I don't live up fully to this billing. This is because my presentation today would dwell more on pointing you back to some of life's key lessons that are available within a university, which are enough to prepare you for life after graduation. Many years ago, I matriculated into this university, thrown into a whole new universe, not knowing what to expect. As a na'ive and unassuming youth, all I came to UNILAG with was eagerness to learn and zeal to explore. At graduation, I was undoubtedly a different person. This institution provided the conditions for me to discover myself; find my voice; and hone my worldview and core values
  • Item
    Open Access
    History and Society
    (University of Lagos Press, 2004-12-07) Ade Ajayi, J.F.
    My aim in this lecture, is to urge that we take a moment to analyse what is really wrong with our society and to suggest what we can and should be doing about it. The degree of violence and instability in our society is intolerable. It is no longer strange to hear that a number of students have used matchets to kill fellow students of the same institution on campus. There are always rumours that some people sacrifice their children in the search for wealth. And the number of corpses that turn up at shrines may be proof of this. Armed robbery and political assassinations are rampant. Business enterprises collapse because no one trusts any other, not even his brother or sister, to play fair. There is such instability and unpredictability that it becomes very difficult to initiate policies that could be sustained for a year or two before "unforeseen circumstances" necessitate a revision, if not reversion. The IMF prescribed Structural Adjustment. We tried it and the present regime goes from one reform agenda to another, but we remain ill at ease
  • Item
    Open Access
    Nigerian Higher Education: Agenda for Reform
    (2013-02-05) Jibril, M.
    The occasion of the celebration of half a century since the establishment of the first Federal University in Nigeria, the University of First Choice and the University of Laureates, the University of Lagos, is an appropriate forum in which to evaluate the .current state of affairs of the Nigerian higher education landscape and reflect on how it may be over-hauled to meet the challenges of the present and the future, hence the title of this lecture. It is an indication of the high quality of teaching and learning in the University of Lagos that ithas produced, from the ranks of its lecturers and former students, more laureates in both Science and Literature in the Nigeria LNG Prize than any other University. Nigerian higher education includes all post-secondary education leading to a Diploma or degree. The higher education institutions include all universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of education and even professional health training institutions. It will be argued in this lecture that urgent policy reforms are required to re￾position Nigeria for the challenges of the twenty-first century knowledge economy. The 2006 population census revealed that only about 8.7% of the population aged 6 above had received higher education by 2006. By comparison, 17.78% had received secondary education. Sadly, up to 37.63 had received no education at all. Over 2.5 million students are enrolled in over 500 such institutions and prograrnrnes in Nigerian higher education. In 2012, there were 106 colleges of education, 74 polytechnics, and 125 universities, with a total estimated enrolment of 2.5 million students. In addition, there were 113 mono technics (i.e. technical colleges specializing in one area of study such as agriculture or health technology) and about 100 schools of nursing and midwifery and other professional training institutions, with an estimated enrolment of over 120,000 students. Given Nigeria'S estimated population of 158.423 million in 2010, the total estimated enrolment in higher education of2,500,000 represents GOLDEN JUBILEE CONVOCATION LECTURE UNILAG 1 a gross enrolment ratio of only 11.29% f~r ~8-t? 25-year-olds (whose population was estimated to be 22.137 million m 2.010). In the ease of universities, although some 40% of them are pnvately owned, the share of enrolment of the private universities is less than 10% of the total. In terms of graduate education, less than 10% of all Nigerian stu?ents are engaged in postgraduate study, and.most oft?ese tend to be m the humanities and especially the SOCIalSCIences,WIthvery ~e:, gra~ua~e students enrolled in the sciences, engineering, or medicine (Jibril, 2003). Indeed, in some universities more than 50% of the graduate students are enrolled in business administration and related courses, responding to the needs of the labour market. Overall, :,hile Ni~eria's higher education sector is among the largest on the Afncan contme~t, reforms are urgently needed-as thi~ lecture ~dl demonstrate-particularly in terms of curnculum, funding, governance, and access.