prof.femi:


Humor me. How much do you think it costs to run a university? Do you know that the power bill of most universities per month is more than N20 million?

Actually, I do tend to agree with you that universities should be cut off government's apron strings. But will the students pay for what their education is truly worth? If you want to know what is is worth, get a global average.

. Heiii, if u say 20million. I totally disagree wit u. Even my whole local govt neva pay dat amount 4 power.

wesley80: ^ I had to click your profile and go through your posts and I've concluded you're simply put 'seriously troubled'. Dude, go get help I dont know if you find pouring misguided abuses therapeutic but I'm in no mood to indulge you. Go get help and save Seun's bandwidth for sensible posts. Thanks in advance

. Arrant rubbish. You still remain a liar and a coward! Now I understand what other posters in that your previous thread opined about you. Just bear in mind that if you continue with your lies I will not relent in exposing you for the liar you are. Be warned!!!

prof.femi:


Thank you for your observation. It gave me cause to pause and think. I believe the explanation lies in the somewhat unfair-sounding principle that we often encounter in life : "to him who has, more will be given, and for he who does not, even that which he has shall be taken".

I'll explain further. I work in one of the top universities in the country. Anytime there is a grant or intervention for my region, you can be sure we will be one of the first targets. My university got a reputation as a leading ICT light, and believe me, most of it was a result of donations and grants from foreign bodies.

I suppose what I'm saying is: the good universities get a lot of IGR from goodwill and clout, thereby helping them remain good, and allowing them take excellent but poor students. The "poor" universities...they're pretty much on their own. Stuck with students who can afford to pay their high fees (but not guaranteed to be excellent students).

Conclusion: your observation is not necessarily due to corruption; its all about a self-fulfilling prophesy thing: good schools get helped to be better, poor schools charge high to remain poor.

yea,you got there!

And that is the corruption we are talking about.

Why should a poor school that charges high remain poor? At least there should be remarkable difference after some time.

prof.femi:


Thank you for your observation. It gave me cause to pause and think. I believe the explanation lies in the somewhat unfair-sounding principle that we often encounter in life : "to him who has, more will be given, and for he who does not, even that which he has shall be taken".

I'll explain further. I work in one of the top universities in the country. Anytime there is a grant or intervention for my region, you can be sure we will be one of the first targets. My university got a reputation as a leading ICT light, and believe me, most of it was a result of donations and grants from foreign bodies.

I suppose what I'm saying is: the good universities get a lot of IGR from goodwill and clout, thereby helping them remain good, and allowing them take excellent but poor students. The "poor" universities...they're pretty much on their own. Stuck with students who can afford to pay their high fees (but not guaranteed to be excellent students).

Conclusion: your observation is not necessarily due to corruption; its all about a self-fulfilling prophesy thing: good schools get helped to be better, poor schools charge high to remain poor.

yea,you got there!

And that is the corruption we are talking about.

Why should a poor school that charges high remain poor? At least there should be remarkable difference after some time.

unmask: Making assumptions on how much was collected without an accompanying note on how it was spent ain't right..... If you can show us a schools expenditure contrasted with their income.... Then you have a case.... Other than that it's just speculation

Specula...what?
When last did you visit nigeria?

prof.femi:
To paraphrase Isaac Asimov, "there is a single light of [truth], and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere..."

Over the last few months that ASUU has been on strike, I have encountered a wide range of responses from students, parents, colleagues, and other stakeholders. It is true that as with most things in life, the problem of education in Nigeria has many facets and agents. Nevertheless, of all the various narratives, ASUU's remains's closest to the truth.

Don't agree? Fine. I can stand people who disagree with me (in fact, I sometimes seek them out so I can learn). And, yes, there *is* a selfish element to ASUU's strike (to the extent that essentially every Nigerian is selfish, because if you don't take care of yourself in this country, nobody will). However, there are bigger issues at play. Anyone who reduced the matter to "ASUU are selfish fools" is either being mischievous, ignorant, or both.

In more civilized places, people often resort to debates to present their views and compare them with others'. I have noted that there seem to be a number of intelligent folks on this forum who are especially pissed off with ASUU. Well, I'm throwing down the gauntlet to any number of you who are interested: If I have takers, I will create a thread to allow us debate the problems of Nigerian tertiary education and the roles of the various players. Rather than resorting to cheap sensationalism and name-calling, let us marshall the facts in a civilized way, and let those who truly care about this country learn.

Nice challenge. I guess you are a member of ASUU!

^ Funny no one took it up. I hope another opportunity comes by soon.

OP is just throwing around speculative annual incomes without considering daily and monthly expenditures. People should grab a copy of any university's weekly bulletin to have a feel of weekly expenditures.

wesley80: ^ Funny no one took it up. I hope another opportunity comes by soon.

Hello pot, I'm kettle!

wesley80: ... Finally, i thought it unfair to single out and respond to just part of my entire post. Didnt the other parts contain anything worth responding to? Come on now Prof.

Hello again Wesley80. Sorry if I failed to respond to your other points. I didn't want to respond to you at all (lest you sound the stalker alert ) but I couldn't resist taking one last dig on just the one issue. Anyway, when two intelligent people have two passes at reconciling divergent views, it's time to agree to disagree. All the best.

Greatihex: . Heiii, if u say 20million. I totally disagree wit u. Even my whole local govt neva pay dat amount 4 power.

Haha! I wish I could frame your response, mount it, and present as Exhibit 1 of the kind of attitude (and ignorance) most Nigerians bring to this debate. Well, my brother, READ MY LIPS: For July 2013, my university (if you press me, I will relent and mention the name) had an electricity bill of over 27 million. And I don't even think the students were around for most of that month.

So what do you have to say now? Do you agree now that you guys don't appreciate how huge an undertaking it is to run tertiary education?

prof.femi:


Hello again Wesley80. Sorry if I failed to respond to your other points. I didn't want to respond to you at all (lest you sound the stalker alert ) but I couldn't resist taking one last dig on just the one issue. Anyway, when two intelligent people have two passes at reconciling divergent views, it's time to agree to disagree. All the best.

Lol @ stalker alert, absolutely not cos as a matter of fact I'd actually started 'following' your posts. You see in a forum like this and a nation like ours where every statement is viewed through the myopic and narrow prism of ethnicity and political affiliation, honest and intelligent opinions like yours are extremely refreshing to read. I do hope you'll find the time and will to contribute to a variety of topics in the future. About that debate you proposed, well the air seems pretty saturated with the ASUU vs FG war so maybe we all need a breather but if you ever decide to go on with it, I'll be game. Kind regards Prof.

wesley80:

Lol @ stalker alert, absolutely not cos as a matter of fact I'd actually started 'following' your posts. You see in a forum like this and a nation like ours where every statement is viewed through the myopic and narrow prism of ethnicity and political affiliation, honest and intelligent opinions like yours are extremely refreshing to read. I do hope you'll find the time and will to contribute to a variety of topics in the future. About that debate you proposed, well the air seems pretty saturated with the ASUU vs FG war so maybe we all need a breather but if you ever decide to go on with it, I'll be game. Kind regards Prof.

Well said bro, well said. All the best.

prof.femi:


Thank you for your observation. It gave me cause to pause and think. I believe the explanation lies in the somewhat unfair-sounding principle that we often encounter in life : "to him who has, more will be given, and for he who does not, even that which he has shall be taken".

I'll explain further. I work in one of the top universities in the country. Anytime there is a grant or intervention for my region, you can be sure we will be one of the first targets. My university got a reputation as a leading ICT light, and believe me, most of it was a result of donations and grants from foreign bodies.

I suppose what I'm saying is: the good universities get a lot of IGR from goodwill and clout, thereby helping them remain good, and allowing them take excellent but poor students. The "poor" universities...they're pretty much on their own. Stuck with students who can afford to pay their high fees (but not guaranteed to be excellent students).

Conclusion: your observation is not necessarily due to corruption; its all about a self-fulfilling prophesy thing: good schools get helped to be better, poor schools charge high to remain poor.

Solution to Assu Strike: Govt should remove thier hand from the Education sector let the universities run by themselves or privatized. The money you will give Assu give students as loan to go to these universities, you can calculate how much the student parent's can afford then give loan for the remainder, the one that is smart u give them scholarship. Students will pay back when they find a job in their field, and you can setup an installment plan depending on their income. The only thing Govt should do is regulate the school fees and give money to schools that does research...that's all. ASUU will dissolve. The professor/lecture will only have to sign Contract with university they will only have problem with the university if they are not paid. Universities can lay off lecturers if they cannot afford. I promise you within 10 years, two universities in Nigeria will enter ranking and compete with Western Universities.

jaryeh: But,what I will continue to reiterate it that If our universities were properly managed with little or no corruption,it would not be in its present shameful state.Hence,generation and allocation of funds into various projects should be strictly monitored by bodies like the EFCC and ICPC.

that's all

Thanks. I see two separate arguments here. Last point first, yes, there could be better implementation. Yes, I support your suggestion that projects be well monitored and audited. However, they already are. You may not be aware, but many cases from universities have been referred to ICPC (RIP) and EFCC. This leads me back to your original argument:

You did not say funding education is cheap. However, by holding up the post you started with, and by arguing that poor universities are more corruption-prone, you implicitly underestimated the cost of running a university.

Firstly, the OP's calculations showing that N10,000 per student per space would accrue a net income to the university is nonsensical, as I briefly tried to show. I could have gone on in the same vein to shoot down his other calculations apparently showing that universities make so much and spend so little (I did mentioned the power bill of my university in this vein).

Secondly, you did not seem to get my argument with good schools versus poor ones. I was merely trying to say that providing education is equally expensive for both, but because good ones have more interventions, they can afford to provide education at a lower cost (since it is essentially subsidized). The poor schools that have no such interventions end up charging closer to the real cost. In effect, nope, I also do not agree that corruption is the reason why they cannot make ends meet.

Hope my points are clearer now?

prof.femi:


Thanks. I see two separate arguments here. Last point first, yes, there could be better implementation. Yes, I support your suggestion that projects be well monitored and audited. However, they already are. You may not be aware, but many cases from universities have been referred to ICPC (RIP) and EFCC. This leads me back to your original argument:

You did not say funding education is cheap. However, by holding up the post you started with, and by arguing that poor universities are more corruption-prone, you implicitly underestimated the cost of running a university.

Firstly, the OP's calculations showing that N10,000 per student per space would accrue a net income to the university is nonsensical, as I briefly tried to show. I could have gone on in the same vein to shoot down his other calculations apparently showing that universities make so much and spend so little (I did mentioned the power bill of my university in this vein).

Secondly, you did not seem to get my argument with good schools versus poor ones. I was merely trying to say that providing education is equally expensive for both, but because good ones have more interventions, they can afford to provide education at a lower cost (since it is essentially subsidized). The poor schools that have no such interventions end up charging closer to the real cost. In effect, nope, I also do not agree that corruption is the reason why they cannot make ends meet.

Hope my points are clearer now?

Ok sir,thanks for enlightening me on that.