Nigerian universities have traditions that I can’t find parallels for in any major world university—such as “excess workload allowances,” a...
Nigerian universities have traditions that I can’t
find parallels for in any major world university—such as “excess workload
allowances,” allowances for grading papers, and such other strange practices.
So I set out to compare the traditions of Nigerian universities with those of
the UK and America, two countries whose traditions we ape. I am starting this
adventure with an interview with Dr. Aliyu Musa, a former Daily Trust foreign affairs editor who now teaches global
journalism at UK’s Coventry University. Enjoy!
1.
Do British journals pay reviewers to review articles? And do authors pay to
publish articles in journals?
I am not aware of any payments made to
journal article reviewers here in the UK. I have reviewed for some journals but
never received any payment. So, I don’t think reviewers are paid and this,
perhaps, explains why they take their time to review articles (sometimes up to
one year). I have heard friends and colleagues say they get payment requests
for journal articles; I was once asked to pay. But from my investigations all
the journal publishers asking for payment from authors are not based in the UK.
And academics who patronise them often learn in the end that publishing with
such journals is a complete waste of time, money and valuable research data,
because they are not accepted for Research Excellence Framework (REF) return.
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| Dr. Aliyu O Musa |
2.
Do lecturers get paid extra allowances for marking papers, supervising exams,
supervising undergraduate and postgraduate theses, etc.?
Lecturers are not paid any extra
allowances for doing any or all of the above. In fact it is stated in the job
advert (duties) that at some point the successful candidate would be asked to
do those. It is, as such, part of the package, although sometimes one could
negotiate with their immediate manager or team leader when or who should do
what, like second marking exams, supervising theses. I did more than five
Saturdays of unpaid full day work during Open Days and prospective students
recruitment and interviews last academic session. The only advantage is you may
ask for one working day off in lieu of each Saturday. In some universities
lecturers are not involved in supervising exams – there is exams office under
the academic registry, which recruits invigilators. Also, in some departments
like mine we do not set exams for students, we assess them both normatively and
summatively through presentations, coursework and portfolio of artefacts which
are handed at specified times and any late submission attracts a zero mark.
3.
Do British universities operate the cohort model of education where people who
are admitted to a school in the same year graduate--or are expected to
graduate-- at the same time?
Yes, most universities now run September
and January cohorts.
4.
Do British universities have "carry-over" and "spill-over"?
One is allowed to carry over modules on
certain conditions: (a) if there are compelling reasons to allow such students
like bereavement, health or if they elect to do a gap year which allows them to
do something else (this is only application to undergraduate students; (b) if a
students fails to hand in any credit scoring coursework and is marked as
absent; (c) if a students fails their second attempt i.e. resit. While in the
first case (a) they are allowed to resume their studies without fresh payments
(provide they were up to date in their payments) in the other situations they
will have to pay fresh fees for the modules they carried over.
5.
When students retake a course they failed, do their new grades completely
replace their previous failing grades? As you know, in Nigeria, that's not the
case.
Yes, but the highest they can score is
%40 regardless of the student’s performance.
6.
What are the criteria to rise through the academic ranks in terms of teaching
and research?
Teaching experience, Research outputs,
ability to secure funding and qualifications (qualification is mainly useful at
the early stage). And sometime industry experience helps.
7.
Do students evaluate their lecturers at the end of every semester? If yes, do
the evaluations have any weight in promotion, etc.?
Students do module evaluations plus NSS
(National Students Survey, which determine university/department’s position on
the league table, based on overall satisfaction and students’ destination).
This is one of the criteria for evaluating lecturers’ performance. So, it might
impact on promotion. But this will also depend on one’s overall DPR (a review
done every six months to set targets or look at one’s achievements). Targets
include teaching, contributions to students experience, securing funding,
research output, raising the university’s profile through
conferences/international seminars etc., recruitment, collaboration with
businesses etc.
8.
Do British universities have the tenure system where lecturers are given a
certain number of years to meet certain expectations (in terms of teaching and
research) after which they either get a lifetime employment or get fired?
Not necessarily. Here, based on the need
at the time, lecturers are hired on temporary or permanent basis and given six
months probationary status. If they are found to be competent on the job they
continue, otherwise they are relieved of their responsibilities and asked to
go.
9.
Finally, what other similarities and differences have you observed between
Nigerian and British universities?
1. There is a lot of emphasis on
research and funding
2. Universities sustain themselves
through recruitments (especially international) of students whose fees are very
helpful
3. Lecturers are supported to do their
job through continuous professional development like PGCERT which is paid for
by the university because the plan is to make sure everyone has some teaching
qualification
4. Obviously there is a robust but
healthy competition amongst the universities towards recruitment and securing
funding
5. They are now internationalising by
partnering with universities in some countries like China, Nigeria, India,
South Africa, Brazil etc.
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