Professor Clement Adebooye, the vice chancellor of Osun State University, has disclosed that pressure from employers will cause universities in Nigeria to lose the patronage of students.
Additionally, he issued a warning that students would no longer attend the university if the administration abandoned professionalism because employers would put pressure on them to do so due to a decline in academic standards.
During the 2nd Annual Registry lecture at the Olagusoye Oyinlola auditorium in Osogbo, Professor Adebooye stated that employers are pressuring recruiting agencies to exclude graduates from specific universities from their shortlist for employment consideration. This trend is observed globally.
His words, “This is the 21st century and the 4th industrial revolution. Before we conclude this century, professionalism will lay its bare on how universities are run and whether universities will have students or not. I want to tell you that at a point in time it will happen, some universities will not have students. They will not have patronage. And why? Because employers will come up with a template that graduates of university that does not fall within a particular rank should not apply for jobs in their organisations.“It’s already happening in the United States, Canada and Europe. They will just ask people to apply for a particular position and you will see that graduates of some universities will not be shortlisted for interviews despite the fact that they made first class. The reason is that there will be a ranking and the ranking will place universities as positions. And employers will go to the interview and say, any student or any graduate who finished from a university that is below rank number 40 should not apply. Or even if they apply, they will not be shortlisted for an interview.“I also see a situation where professionalism will lead us to a situation that for appointment of principal officers of the university, especially Vice Chancellors, there will no more be fights. The criteria will be set. They will be very clear. You will have scored yourself before you apply. And when you score yourself, you will not file your application because you know that you will not be shortlisted, because your CV does not measure up to the standard. It is going to happen, it may be in the next 20 or 30 years”.
In his presentation titled "Encouraging Professionalism and Skill-Based Management of Nigerian Universities: Which Path, Which Position?" Atodele Ogunruku, the registrar of Obafemi Awolowo University, emphasized that administrators must regard themselves as the university's lifeline in order to fulfill its founding objectives.
