The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, has urged specialised universities in the country to work closely with industries to mitigate the unemployment challenge facing the nation.
Rasheed, who was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary (Academics), Dr. Sulaimon Ramon-Yusuf, stated this during the 27th Convocation Ceremony of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He said graduate un-employability had become a big issue but specialised universities like FUNAAB were in a vantage position to create a truly entrepreneurial environment.
The NUC executive secretary said, “We will like to implore specialised universities to look more closely at options and opportunities of collaborating with private sectors to address this troublesome phenomenon of un-employability of our graduates and try to create true entrepreneurship, which is not only about skills acquisition; it is about the mind-set of finding creativity.
“We are convinced that NUC is working closely with the private and other sectors so that our universities can be better positioned to add value to human capital development.”
Earlier in his speech, Visitor to the university, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, reiterated the determination of the Federal Government to adequately fund its universities to enable them to achieve their mandates.
The President, who stressed the importance of education as a tool for national building and development, also charged stakeholders to use sound education in addressing national needs.
The visitor expressed government’s desire to continue to support university education in the area of funding, noting that the provision of job was not the sole responsibility of government.
The Chancellor and Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon, Abasi Otu V, appealed to the Visitor, to magnanimously restore the institution’s courses in the College of Management Sciences (COLMAS) that were delisted about three years ago, stating that the establishment of the College was borne out of the call for the diversification of academic courses in specialised universities with the promise to retain agriculture as the flagship programme.
He said that the restoration of COLMAS would add value to what the university was doing because of the strong inter-relationship between agriculture and management.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Felix Kolawole Salako, at the ceremony, confirmed that 27 out of the 29 academic programmes offered by the university had been fully accredited by NUC and that FUNAAB had blazed the trail as the first public university in Nigeria to obtain international accreditation for some of its programmes.
The vice-chancellor added that various infrastructural development programmes were ongoing on campus, as the current administration had embarked on the completion of outstanding projects before he assumed duty about two years ago.
The Overall Best Graduating Student, Miss Odunayo Odunsi, of the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, College of Environmental Resources Management (COLERM), stressed that it was imperative for people to focus on their personal goals and beliefs without leaving room for doubts that could hinder such dreams.
She dedicated her success and degree to her father for his guidance and preservation throughout her journey in the university, adding, “The best investment that any society can make is the education of its young people and this shouldn’t basically be looked upon myopically as a ‘cost’. It should rather be looked upon as the best investment that any society can make.”
