I have no space to publish the deluge of responses my column of last week ignited, but read below a sample which collectively paint a pic...
I have no space to publish the
deluge of responses my column of last week ignited, but read below a sample
which collectively paint a picture of the sordid state of Nigerian postgraduate
education.
You've really hit the nail on the head with this piece! Those reasons
you gave were what made me throw in the towel and abandon my Ph.D. program
after seven years!
In addition to those, one has to contend with corrupt departmental
staff who want you to always be giving them money. They even at a time hid my
departmental file and said there was nobody to go and search for it. They
advised that I open another one and again pay the departmental charges. And
they were openly encouraged by the course co-ordinator who said, to my face,
that they shouldn't pity me because my organization had money.
My supervisor made me open a file where I put my proposal because he
said he wouldn't accept it by email as it would require him buying fuel to
start his generator to download and print it.
Whenever I went to ask whether he had gone through my proposal, he
would ask me to go through a stack of files to find mine - sometimes I would
find it after so much effort and waste of time. At other times, he would say he
might have taken it home - after which he would give me another appointment as
he was unable to look at it. And I normally cover about 400 kms to reach the
school. The man seldom answered my phone call nor responded to my emails.
There was a day he told another Ph.D student that they made a mistake
in giving him admission as his masters was a professional and not an academic
one. That they were considering whether he had to take additional courses or
start a new masters before continuing with the Ph.D. And no definite time or
adequate explanation was given to him on when that would be done! All this
happened in my presence.
One of our staff who just completed his masters told me they had to
contribute money to pay for accommodation and feeding for the external
examiner!
Ahmed Abdulkadir
My late wife (may her soul rest in peace) was a victim of this
"hazing" culture when she was pursuing a PhD programme at Uniabuja.
Her supervisor would evade her for several months and, whenever she managed to
track him down, he would express extreme anger at why she was
"disturbing" him. At a time, we both thought he was probably mentally
unbalanced.
Ibrahim Sheme
In early 2000, my mum enrolled into a masters’ degree program in
Nigeria. She graduated 6 years later! The reason for not graduating in record
time was that her dissertation (which of course was a course like other courses
she registered) was obviously seen as much more important than all other taught
courses she took earlier, and that it deserved to be written (and even
rewritten) over five years! During the dissertation writing period, there were
requests for ‘proposals’ upon ‘proposals’ and ‘seminars’ upon ‘seminars’. The
seminars were organized in the department and the student would bear the cost
of drinks, and snacks that were used for entertaining the professors as they
lazily watched and enjoyed themselves while assuming their reclining sitting
positions. And it was also required that for each seminar or proposal, the copy
of my mum’s work must be duplicated 25 to 30 times; enough to go round the
desks of the committee.
In addition to ‘entertainment’
costs, she had to bear the costs of duplicating those unusually lengthy
proposals. My mum was pursuing her masters’ degree in library and information
science, but the situation at the time was so bad that one day a professor of
surgery in the same university visited our house and told my dad that he (the
professor) saw my mum’s research work during one of the university senate
meetings. In normal societies, a professor of surgery wouldn’t see and wouldn’t
have any business with a masters’ degree proposal from the department of
library science save for Nigeria.
A friend who was studying toward a Masters’ degree in a Nigerian
university told me he couldn’t graduate in record time because his supervisor’s
wife died! I came to England in October 2012, and enrolled into a Masters’
degree program that was undoubtedly coming to a close in November 2013. I got
my Masters’ degree in record time, and I had no issues at all with my
dissertation supervisors. I didn’t even know (and I was not supposed to know,
neither am I interested in knowing) if my supervisors were married at all or
whether their partners had died.
The troubles with Nigeria are too many!
Mohammed Dahiru Aminu
It is understandable that your analysis of the problem of postgraduate
education is heavily one-sided against the lecturers. However, it is not
correct to put the blame entirely on the internal university/faculty
supervisors. The students also must take part of the blame. Many students
completely miss the objective and focus of postgraduate eructation. They look
at it as senior undergraduate studies. This perspective makes the students
generally incapable of undertaking independent study, which is the hallmark of
advanced degree programmes. How do we save postgraduate education in Nigeria?
1. The universities themselves must take responsibility for this problem by
setting standards, monitoring performance, evaluating student and supervisor
activity and punishing infractions 2. ASUU must come in to support university
standards and ensure compliance. 3. The NUC is the statutory government body
charged with responsibility for university education. It should also ensure
that relevant and modern postgraduate education is available in Nigerian
universities.
Samaila Mohammed
What a beautiful piece of writing. I wish the supervisors would change
for the better. I spent eight years to do my masters in the University of
Maiduguri. I had to struggle to get my notification. The result, on the other
hand, was not signed for three years because the registrar was too busy. I
swore then I won't do my PhD in Nigeria. Thanks for reminding them that our
universities will soon collapse due to negligence and envy.
Zainab Ibrahim
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