Vision for Lagos State University. BY LATEEF AKANNI HUSSAIN

VISION FOR THE UNIVERSITY IN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS

I have the vision of a modern well managed and efficiently administered university, which places premium on academic excellence and moral integrity where students and staff shall have fulfilling careers. With everyone aware of his responsibilities and privileges, the university’s administration shall be committed to service, transparency and accountability. Students and staff shall be encouraged and rewarded for giving of their best to the advancement of the goals of the university.

The goals should be impeccable teaching, research and community service. These can be achieved by the admission of qualified students, the employment of qualified staff and the provision of adequate facilities, all in an atmosphere of high integrity and sound moral character.

Qualified students should mean those students who are in the university not only because they are qualified to be there but, more importantly, because they really want to be there. It shall be the responsibility of the university to ensure this. Standards and conditions must be specified clearly and administered justly and firmly to achieve a strong studentship for the university.

All university staff, teachers and administrators must be clearly qualified, respectable by those they will serve, and respectful to those they are accountable to. This is important, for one who cannot be a good follower will not be a good leader. The appointment of staff, like the admission of students, must be above board. Why not an all-star team at all times for LASU? Staff training through seminars and workshops will feature in university activities.

Facilities shall be provided. There are many ways of providing these but the university proprietors will need to take some steps. From one’s experience, additional facilities can be obtained from international bodies like the generous Swedish, Norwegian or Canadian International Development Agencies, and the Third World Academy of Sciences. However, most of these agencies in the west will not provide strategic instruments and materials. Many donors hardly want their recipients to be independent and self-reliant. So, we must look towards Asia (India, Pakistan), Africa (South Africa, Egypt) and South America (Brazil, Cuba). All roads nowadays need not always lead only to Europe and North America. All these ideas will be developed form one’s experience and contacts and shall take dedicated efforts. A small office of External Relations shall be created to handle fund-raising, grants and other related activities.

With a strong student base, qualified staff and adequate facilities, teaching, research and community service can now be fulfilled. Lecturers must be encouraged to teach well and clearly. They should be regular at lectures and seminars, be masters of their subjects, mark scripts promptly and must earn the respect of their students. All students will have the opportunity to evaluate from their lectures and suitable procedures will be developed to discern true evaluations from false ones. One does not wish to have a ‘kind’ teacher who gives marks in order to impress his students but teaches nothing, in preference to an ‘unkind’ teacher who works hard and makes his students really learn.

Every programme in the university shall have a suitable training laboratory. What one practises one remembers. If LASUTH is the teaching hospital for Medicine, let us develop a suitable practising laboratory for Engineering; let the staff of law faculty practise as lawyers in real courts with their students at specified levels going to observe them. All these extra efforts shall be adequately remunerated. If medical academics can earn approved medical allowances, let other academics practise their professions openly within regulations and earn approved allowances too. The question can be asked, for example, about those staff in the Arts. The university shall be open to suggestions and innovations.

Research shall be encouraged. While individual research is welcome, provided it is open and verifiable, group research, which is now the practice worldwide, shall be preferred. Research Programmes useful to the university and its community, Lagos State, shall be clearly specified. Multidisciplinary research shall be emphasized. Experts in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology can join with those in Medicine and Physiology; those in Law can join their colleagues in Management to look, for example, into Cyber Law; almost unlimited possibilities. Central laboratories with multi-functional facilities, on-line ICT facilities preferably with workstations will be provided. It shall be a joint university effort and everyone will be encouraged. At the end, those who are working will know, those who are not working will also know. Publications in indexed journals will be more appreciated. This is the hallmark of a scholar, but in our own environment, publications shall not be all and only all. Other contribution shall be assessed and rewarded for even, in advanced universities, there are professors whose major contributions have little to do with the number of publications but derive from their discoveries, ground-breaking works and inventions. All these shall be adequately rewarded.

In addition to community service to the State, the university will take, if it has not already been taking, remedial steps to train our students to qualify for admission into any Nigerian university. This particular community service will be implemented by creating a department of General Studies. The department will, as part of its external services, also take steps which, from one’s experience, will ensure that our students are admitted on scholarship into both undergraduate and postgraduate studies overseas. A pilot local effort in this regard at Ibadan has proved very fruitful.

These are some, but by no means all, of what one intends to pursue. At the end of the day, LASU shall stand out. Its work and its further achievements shall show it clearly. The university will shine on its own spontaneously.

A CONTINUATION OF MY VISION FOR LASU-SOME FURTHER INSIGHTS

(A) A Field Report

-- findings about, observations of and one’s intents, if given the opportunity, on the Lagos State University (LASU).

Introduction

Since I prepared and submitted my application for the Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), and after I was invited for the interview, I have had to find out more about the university in recent times by seeking authentic and consistent information through informal contacts with current and former students, parents and staff as well as with those who have ever had one thing or another to do with the university. As a pioneer guest lecturer at the university in 1984, I feel myself fairly able to discuss the earliest history of the university. Below are some of my findings about, observations of and consequent intents on the university should the opportunity to serve be offered. Needless to add that this humble attempt does not, and cannot, claim to be exhaustive or perfect.

1. Collegiate system

   LASU, I understand, is now considering a collegiate system. Using the experience of Ibadan where the collegiate system failed disastrously in 1989 and, again in 2001, I will suggest that what the university needs is actually DECENTRALISATION and DEVOLUTION especially of the registry, bursary, library, audit and maintenance offices within a faculty system or a collegiate system (show 1989 Council report, 2001 Vision Committee report, page 10-11, letter to Professor Adesogan on this and own model). In other words, whether we call the various parts faculties, colleges, schools, campuses, centers, whether there is a faculty under a dean like in most universities, a college under a dean like in UNAAB and a few other universities, or a college under a provost like in most medical colleges, what is most important is DECENTRALISATION, DEVOLUTION and SEMI-AUTONOMY of the various component units. This is what produces strength and excellence. America is decentralized and strong, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were centralized and they collapsed while China has indirectly, but pretentiously, begun the process of decentralization and privatization by decentralizing economic activities while still centralizing political ones. One of the laws of physics, the stability of the nucleus, even supports the need for decentralization or what one may even call ‘privatization’ (show Akin-ojo, p. 23-24). Man is naturally a decentralized, private animal. Let us have decentralization, devolution and semi-autonomy and from these derive strength and excellence.
   

2. Students’ Records

   This is one of the most important aspects of a university, and where records are inadequate or non-existent, only chaos can result. The intent here is to computerise all aspects of students’ records, including examination results, right from the point of admission to that of graduation and beyond. It shall be possible to know immediately the status of each bona-fide student, past or present, at any time, by calling for the student’s records either in the department through departmental records, in the faculty through faculty records or at the registry through the registry records. No doubt, a network of computer facilities of the university shall be inevitable here. One intends to pursue this vigorously and commence almost immediately.

3. Important Relevant Publications

   Every university system ought to publish regularly, and sometimes annually, some important publications like the University Calendar, the Staff information Handbook, the Students information Handbook, the Procedure of Senate, the University Examination Procedure and the Manual of Accounting Procedures (show some of these). These are some of the things that project a university. One has not been able to lay one’s hand on any of these especially, the most important of the lot, the University Calendar. Efforts shall in be made to commence and produce probably the first’ LASU University Calendar in more than twenty years.

4. LASU Annual Reports

   University annual reports are used to monitor the progress of a university in teaching, research and community service during a particular year. It is a great pity that one can hardly find any Nigeria university where this is done on a regular basis or even done at all. One hopes to take necessary steps to start and sustain LASU Annual Reports; such as step can only boost the image of the university, and the university may then be the first one in Nigeria to produce regular annual reports.
   

5. Rejuvenated Public Relations Office

   One a realistic note, we must accept that LASU has an image problem; this has resulted in a very poor perception of the university by the public in general. It shall be a central intent to redeem the image of the university by strengthening considerably the public relations office. This is a very important intent. The gown of LASU must not be soiled, let us bring in the town quickly now.

6. Cult Activities

   One foreign station once referred to LASU as “probably the most violent university in the world”. While the exaggeration is clear, there is a need to combat cult activities with tact, skill and finesse. As mentioned in the first vision write-up, one shall make students realises that it is one hard thing to get into LASU but another harder thing still to remain in LASU (tell your story briefly, show your first test in UI, 28% score!). Every student must work seriously for both. Students must study hard to be admitted into LASU and study harder still to stay on in the university and graduate (show the UI withdrawal list). Ours shall be a very busy university. Let us keep the students busy. Let lecturers be alive to their responsibilities. Let lectures and practicals be given punctually, assignments with clear hand-over deadlines be given and marked regularly, examinations set and conducted properly, scripts marked fairly and promptly, with students having right, within the regulations to ask for and see their scripts, and results released on schedule and communicated to students and their sponsors. Again, ours shall indeed be a very busy university, so busy that cult activists and other non-serious ones will naturally have to find other university or any other places to move to. Let us consider this: why are students in LASU College of Medicine and many other medical schools hardly found among cult members? Could it be that “the devil always finds work for an idle hand”? We shall not be idle in LASU; we shall certainly not be idle in LASU.

7. Overpopulation

   The advertisement for the post of Vice-chancellor mentioned a total student population of over 60,000 spread around one main, four minor and five affiliated campuses. What a mega University; a mega university in an underdeveloped African environment with its inadequate technology. LASU has definitely over-enrolled (show newspaper publication). The University of California system has a total population of about 100,000 in nine fully autonomous campus; Cambridge with its many colleges has a total enrolment of 12,000 while Princeton has 11,000. Both Cambridge and Princeton have almost equal numbers of undergraduates and postgraduates. So here we have three excellent universities in areas of highly sophisticated technology and yet with an average population of about 10,000 per campus. Ibadan has an enrolment of about 18,000 and is considering further but gradual reduction. The enrolment at LASU ought to be reduced slowly but steadily. A sore point is this allegedly troublesome college on the main campuses, as read of heard in various news reports. This may be one of our many first lines of intents. LASU should trim down its student population; it is rather excessive.

8. Tuition and other fees

   Once any fees are mentioned, almost everyone immediately runs for cover and hides under the “free education” policy of the proprietor, but we must be painfully realistic. If education were free, and truly free, who picks up the bill, and is the picker of the bill willing to pick it up in full? Germany has a free tuition university policy and the German government actually pays each university directly the full equivalent and adequate tuition fee of each student apart from its other and massive research grants of up to about 2% of the German GDP! Britain has a semi-free tuition fee policy with the central government, on the one hand, and the parents and local governments on the other, sharing the tuition fee. Cambridge and Oxford, because of their special position in the British society, receive from British government an additional ₤2000grant (current figures) per student over and above the other nation-wide tuition fees. India, as realistic as ever, has no free university education policy; students must pay. However, in order to cushion the effects of these fees, India, like America, has an elaborate and very effective educational loan system. In the US, about 10% of the students have sponsors who are willing to pay, 20% are on some forms of scholarship while the remaining 70% have take loan if they want college education.
   
   So, either someone like a sponsor or somewhat like government, loan scheme, scholarship or bursary award, must pick up the LASU bill too (show your university scholarship award letter of September, 1967). The intent here is to start a dedicated, but necessary, long discussion on fees, involving all the stakeholders and compare note especially with other state universities in the south-west. One looks forward to a long realistic and mutually beneficial discussion leading to a reasonable, realistic and mutually beneficial fee levels. All of us need to reach some concrete and realistic agreements here.

   Incidentally, One’s findings seem to indicate the following unfortunate trend: a remarkable inverse correlation between the level of fees and the students’ misbehaviour and campus stability; the lower the fees, like in the main campus, the worse the behaviour of the students while, as is to be expected, the higher the school fees, like in the College of Medicine and at the School of Communication, the better and more mature the behavior of students. What a telling trend! What an unfortunate, reverse correlation!

9. Part-time courses

   One’s finding here is linked with those earlier mentioned under overpopulation in LASU. The story of full-time courses and part-time courses in LASU has become that of a tenant sending the landlord packing. To many staff and to most students on the main campus, part-time courses are, in the Orwellian tradition, actually full-time courses have taken the backseat to become effectively part-time courses; afterall, part-time students pay more and staff receive substantial extra remuneration from part-time courses over and above their normal university salary for full-time service, which they will receive anyway. One also finds that classes for part-time courses are now even held on weekdays rather than in the evenings or at weekends; the Orwellian tradition again, part-time on weekdays, full-time on weekends or at all? But LASU is not a part-time university; one is afraid part-time courses will have to be reconsidered, reassessed and reviewed. This intent is inevitable. Let the rightful owner take its rightful place.

10. NUC ranking

    The NUC ranking for LASU is nothing to write home about. One has always been wary of NUC ranking particularly when, in 2002, NUC ranked UNAAB, Abeokuta, a mainly one-course university, as the best university overall in Nigeria and ranked the Olabisi Onabanjo University Medical School in Shagamu as the medical school in Nigeria! Then, the joke in Ibadan was that should the Minister of Education or the NUC Executive Secretary suffer any head injury in an accident, he should be taken to Shagamu teaching hospital, which has no neurosurgeon, instead of to the University College Hospital with at least three consultant neurosurgeons. In 2004, the NUC ranking has become much more realistic, but LASU overall is now in 24th position out of 49, and is not ranked at all among the first three in any of the faculty/programme, rankings (show NUC ranking), 26th (last) out of 26 university in Engineering, 4th in Nigeria Top Ten overcrowded university (show newspaper again), zero out of 20 in research universities, but then some silver lining, 11th out 26 in medicine, medicine again; remember cult activists are hardly found in Medicine. The intent is to improve on these low rankings considerably within three years.

11. Examination Results and the Issuance of Certificates

    LASU has not for sometime produced the results of both final and non-final year students and has, consequently but not surprisingly, not issued certificates for sometime. Many parents and guardians one knows are anxious about getting their children’s and wards’ results. The intent here is to fast track the release of results and the issuance of certificates and even, given the resources, post all results on the web. LASU could be the first to do this. The necessary software which can also be used at LASU for all these can be adopted from the existing softwares in UNAAB, which I helped initiate in 1991, and some others being used or developed at Ibadan as well as those being developed by a former student now in Tennessee, USA. Here, therefore, is what could be one’s really first intent. LASU must produce the up-to-date results of all its student, final and non-final year (show Ibadan lates2003/2004 results). Student shall have their results at the end of the first session of one’s service. God willing.

Conclusion

This has been a field report of an applicant. He hopes he has produced a worthwhile report, but accepts full responsibility and apologises for all its inadequacies. As he is still thinking, he now proceeds to mention some of his own other visions for LASU beyond this small effort.

(B) And still more Visions
-- my further thoughts about LASU

• Programme Proposals
1. Extra-mural programme in Science (to start with), Arts and the social sciences for those with deficient ordinary level qualifications. Centres shall be established in high-density areas of Lagos state. Candidates shall be prepared for external WAEC or NECO examination but must make their own private arrangements to take the examinations. This is the important starting-point for all university entrants; there shall not be admitted into LASU any student with deficient ordinary level results. A strong studentship base begins partly from a strong basic qualification.
2. Pre-UME programme in which candidates with at least five credits including English Language and Mathematics obtained at not more than two sittings and who may sit for an entrance examination into the programme shall be prepared for the UME examination in order to be admitted, by UME, into any Nigeria university. Candidates must also take the final internal LASU examination in order to be additionally considered for admission into the 100-level of the degree programme at LASU. This is not a pre-degree programme as its products do not have to attend LASU; they shall be free to attend any other university. We could, therefore, have indirectly avoided the characteristic massive manipulation of results and the attendant corruption not uncommon nowadays in most pre-degree programmes in many universities.
3. Pre-Direct-Entry programme, a deliberately tough programme in which candidates with at least five credits including English Language and Mathematics obtained at one sitting (please, note, one sitting) and who may sit for an entrance examination into the programme shall be prepared for the advanced level examination (using advanced level or 100-level syllabus of LASU and of other examination bodies like Cambridge and London) in order to be admitted, by Direct Entry, into any university whether in Nigeria or overseas. Candidates shall be encouraged to take external, overseas advance level examinations but must also take a deliberately tough and manipulation-proof internal LASU advanced-level examination in order to be additionally considered for admission into the 200-level of the degree programme at LASU. Again, this is not a pre-degree programme as its products are free to attend any university here in Nigeria or overseas.
4. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is an American equivalent of our own UME, for admission into American universities (colleges). Candidates who must have obtained at least six credits (please, note, it is no more five) including English Language and Mathematics at one sitting and who may sit for an entrance examination in order to be admitted into the programme, shall be prepared rigorously for the SAT examination. Candidates are to make their own private arrangements to obtain SAT forms as well as application forms into American universities.
5. Graduate Record Examination GRE Programme for admission into the graduate programmes of American universities. Candidate must have obtain at least a Second-Class (Upper Division) degree from a recognized university as well as an earlier ordinary level qualification with at least five credits including English language and mathematics obtained at one sitting and may sit for an entrance examination in order to be admitted into the programme Candidates, who shall be prepared rigorously for the GRE examinations, are expected to make their own private arrangements to obtain GRE forms as well as application forms into the graduate programme of American universities.
   
• Academic Policy Intents


1. Staff Training

Staff training through scientific visits, technical seminars etc. shall be undertaken. Some of the generous bodies that can be contacted on this shall include:

• The Third World Academy of Science (TWAS), Italy
• African network of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI), Kenya
• International Science Programme at Uppsala, Sweden
• Canadian International Development Agency, Canada


2. General Studies

   A new general studies course to be titled ‘Moral Education and Civic Duties’ shall be introduced while accepting that morals cannot be taught it is expected that the course will make our students realise the importance of sound moral character as will be reflected in their civic responsibilities. Two other General Studies courses that shall be introduced if they are not already being offered shall be:

   • Reading and Study Skills, along the lines of that of the University of Ilorin as designed and
   • Practical Psychology, for everyday living.
3. Academic Calendar and Time-tables

Every session shall have an academic calendar approved by Senate; by this, students and staff shall know, in advance, the dates of commencement and end of each semester and session. The university can thus plan for the judicious use of its resources.

Teaching time-table and end-of-semester Examination time-table must be produced and circulated widely among staff and students within the firs week of every semester. Every student must know the examination timetable in advance; to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

4. Joint teaching and Conference marking

A policy of joint teaching of courses shall be undertaken. The idea here is not to allow any course to be wholly taught by just a single teacher; at least, two teachers should teach a course by dividing between them the course contents. This is to ensure that no teacher can have absolute control over any course; for large classes, of about five hundred students or more, more than two teachers shall be required to take the course. No single lecturer shall have absolute power over any course. In addition, a conference marking procedure shall be adopted for most of the courses involving large classes.

5. Admission of students

The admission of students of shall follow strictly the guidelines laid down by the proprietor, that is 40% Lagos indigenes, 40% for students from the Lagos State School System and 20% other Nigeria citizens. LASU admission exercise shall be transparent. All admissions into any course, each and everyone of the admissions into the course, shall ORIGINATE from the department or unit where the course is taught, not from anywhere else, and MUST conform with the guidelines of the proprietor.

Any shortfall form any of the categories laid down by the proprietor shall not be filled by students from other categories but shall be left until qualified students from the under-subscribed category are found; none of the three categories of Lagos State indigenes, Lagos State school system and other Nigeria citizens shall be short-changed. In order to ensure strict compliance with the policy of the proprietor and the Council, a responsibility position of a Coordinator of Admissions, to be occupied by a teaching staff not below the rank of a Senior Lecturer, shall be established. The coordinator shall oversee the admission office and coordinate the admission processes on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor through the Deputy Vice-Chancellor as well as represent the university, accompanied by the relevant registry staff, at all meetings on admissions with external bodies like JAMB, WAEC, NECO etc. The Coordinator of Admissions shall have NO POWER, including discretionary power which in any case not dose even exist, to admit students into any course; the power to admit, according to the laid down guidelines, is left with the various teaching departments or units through the dean of the faculty or provost of the college. Again, the Coordinator of Admissions, of even the Vice-Chancellor and other principal officers, shall have no power of admitting students into any course. The coordinator is just to coordinate the admission processes and ensure that they follow the guidelines laid down by the enabling law of the university. The final list of students admitted according to these guidelines shall be presented to Senate for approval.

6. Regulations for Students

The regulations for passing, warning, withdrawal, transfer, etc. of students shall be reviewed and clearly stated; the enforcement of any new regulation shall neither be immediate nor retrospective but shall, on the approval of Senate, commence on the first day of the following session. This is to allow the new regulations to be widely circulated and for student and staff to be fully aware of them before implementation commences.

7. Promotion of Academic Excellence

Academic excellence shall be promoted among all categories of students through the institution of prizes. For examples, students with the highest score in each faculty shall be placed on the VC’s list. One student with the highest score in each department shall be placed on the Dean’s list. The next highest scores may be placed on the HOD’s list. This is to encourage a healthy competition among students, and to give them something to strive for. Each awardee shall be given some handsome reward to be determined by discussion at the appropriate forum.

8. LASU textbook series

As part of its community service, a LASU textbook series on the basic subjects in Arts, Science and the Social Sciences shall be undertaken. It is hoped that the series may start with the Sciences.

9. Research in Aquatic Sciences

It is intended that research areas in aquatic sciences shall be encouraged, given the environment of Lagos State. Some area of research that come immediately to mind are Marine and Fishery Studies.

• Administrative Policy Intents


1. Fund Generation
   Avenues that can generate funds for the university other than those form programmes earlier proposed shall include the following:

   (a) LASU academic professionals (engineers, lawyers etc.) shall be encouraged to undertake internal LASU projects or cases as well as other external jobs (constructions, cases etc.) as CONSLTANTS, but not as contractors, and be paid fully like any other consultant. By this, the teachers will gain more experience and their students too shall gain practical, on-the-job training. This has been very largely successful in the Faculty of Technology at Ibadan during the two-term deanship of Professor Tunde Alabi (2002-2004) and the faculty is now being invited to undertake major external jobs; it has also been successful to some extent in the Faculty of Science during the two-term deanship of this writer (2001-2003) when first-rate computers were assembled and sold cheaply by the Department of Computer Science. This same department, with the encouragement of this writer as Dean, assembled in-house all the fifteen computers now being used in its Ayo Rosiji Memorial Computer Laboratory, donated to the department by Chief Kola Daisi.

   (b) An instruments, and instrumentation centre shall be established to repair instruments but, more importantly, to design new instrumention. In this respect, it may be necessary to invite some good, tested hands to the university assist to not only in establishing the LASU center but also in training LASU technical staff on ground. For this purpose, we shall concentrate initially on chemical analysis (chemistry, pharmacy etc.), biological analysis (botany, microbiology physiology zoology), nuclear analysis (physics, medicine) and radioanalysis, (physics, radiology, radiotherapy). On nuclear analysis and radioanalysis, we shall hope to start, almost immediately, discussion with the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), and its Director-General, Professor S.B Elegba, for the approval and licensing of LASU Radiation Monitoring and Protection Service (LASURMPS). The service, with the assistance of some experts from the long-established Federal Radiation Protection Service (FRPS) at Ibadan where the writer was Technical Director from 1986 to 1989,will monitor radiation, at least, all over Lagos State and shall definitely have a large clientele. It is our firm hope that the NNRA will license LASU as a monitor of and protector from radiation. One envisages that a lot of fund could be generated from the proposed LASURMPS as was done then at the University of Ibadan FRPS.

2. Appointment of staff

   The appointment of excellent staff shall be a priority right from the commencement of one’s service. One method is to have a confidential head-hunt for highly qualified staff who may then be invited to LASU to assist or, if they so desire, take up formal appointment; such people will have to be well-tested staff with long field experience and they shall be expected to train LASU staff while at the university. Another method is to advertise openly; there shall be no temporary appointment in LASU. All must compete squarely, fairly and openly for any job in LASU. For teaching staff, in particular, there shall be no confirmation, or indeed promotion, to a higher grade, of, say, Lecture I, without the completion of a Ph. D or a relevant higher degree. This has been the long-term practice at Ife and Lagos and, recently, from 2001, at the Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan. The expectation is that other faculties at Ibadan are about to follow Science soon on this. No promotion or confirmation without any further improvement; improvement must precede promotion or confirmation.

3. Staff Development
   

   Along the lines-mentioned above, a deliberate attempt will be made to attract and train young, brilliant academics by inviting graduates of good standing to take up appointment with LASU as Graduate Assistants with a promise of further training. LASU may even advertise a graduate staff development scheme. Staff trained like this from the earliest part of their careers usually develop affinity for the sponsoring institution; for example, N.O. Alao a 1965 as a graduate of Ibadan, was employed by the University of Lagos in September 1965 as a graduate assistant; trained by the university and rose to become the Vice-Chancellor of the institution H.O. Danmole, 1974 graduate of Ibadan, was employed by the University of Ilorin in September 1976, trained by the university and has been professor of History at the institution since the early 1990s. The development of young, brilliant academics shall be a priority.

4. Established Positions

   All positions for all cadres of staff in LASU (academic, technical, administrative, clerical, senior, junior etc.) must be established in all departments and units, and budgeted for. In particular, the NUC guidelines for the distribution of teaching staff, is, 20% Reader/Professor, 50% Senior Lecturer and 30% Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer/Graduate Assistant, shall be seriously considered. There is a need to use the available staff optimally.

5. Additional University Gratuity Plan

   Looking carefully around us, one could see the difficulties of retired staff. The British, apparently thinking ahead, had two sets of gratuity plains for all staff then at Ibadan; an internal gratuity and pension scheme managed by the university and an external (overseas) gratuity scheme managed by a British firm. It is the thousands of pounds sterling being received by those who qualified before the overseas scheme was cancelled in 1975 that they are now surviving on without any internal pension. One intends to propose the creation, separate form the proprietor’s, of a LASU Staff Gratuity plan, a voluntary, contributory, self opt-out scheme to be managed externally by experts and to provide additional gratuity on retirement for staff.

6. Discipline

   Discipline shall be enforce among both staff and students. Disciplinary cases will be treated dispatch, since “justice delayed is justice denied”. Both our students and staff handbooks will identify offences and their punishments. These shall not be applied retroactively, and will be given adequate publicity before being implemented. Every offender shall be given fair hearing, in accordance with the principle of natural justice.

7. Finance: Accounting and Control

   (a) Income
   While one is definitely not and expert on banking and financial matters, one wants to suggest this simples procedure. All incomes, every LASU incomes must, first of all, be banked into a single, consolidated account; the intention here is to ensure that no cash income is handled under any circumstance internally. A resident bank or a willing, but not resident, bank mighty even be invited to handle all cash incomes directly. So, no LASU staff, but rather the bank staff, shall handle LASU cash income. A recent similar idea at the University College Hospital, Ibadan has brought their monthly collection to over N3m instead of the usual N500,000 or less then. What a massive turn-around!

   (b) Expenditure
   All expenditure must be budgeted for. Each unit, department or section must have a budget and a budgeted expenditure account. Of course, supplementary budgets can be requested for w

   
   
   hen and if necessary but there must be a budget in order to prevent any frivolous spending. Thus, the only instance where LASU staff can handle cash directly may come, say, from controlled imprest accounts.

8. Recreation Facilities

   Efforts will be made to improve sports and recreation facilities at LASU. Though students must be kept busy with their academic work, they will also be encouraged to participate in sports and other recreation activities, so that ‘all work and no play’ will not make LASU students dull.