*The National Universities Commission expresses disappointment at what it has described as 鈥榤eddlesome interlopers鈥� in academic disciplines which they are not competent, making PhD students 鈥榲ictims of interminable doctoral programmes鈥� and frustration

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

Expressing disappointment at what it described 鈥渕eddlesome interlopers鈥� in certain instances, the Federal Government has expressed concern over the poor quality of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) researches Nigerian universities conduct, and huge copyright infringement,

The Nigerian Government, which attributed this development to some avoidable factors Wednesday, September 29, 2021, noted with disappointment what it called 鈥渕eddlesome interlopers鈥� in academic disciplines which they are not competent, thereby making PhD students 鈥渧ictims of interminable doctoral programmes鈥� and frustration in the system.

Malam Adamu Adamu, Honourable Minister for Education

Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), represented by Dr. Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, Deputy ES (Academics) at the NUC, disclosed these in his keynote address at the inauguration of the Doctoral Academy of Nigeria and training workshop on PhD research supervision, The Punch report said.

绿帽献妻 reports the NUC is a government commission promoting quality higher education in the country.

The commission was established in 1962 as an advisory agency in the Cabinet Office, and it is currently located in Abuja, FCT.

It was learnt the Committee of Provosts and Deans of Postgraduate Colleges and Schools in Nigerian Universities organised the workshop with the theme, 鈥淓nhancing The Capacities Of Doctoral Supervisors For Research Supervision鈥�.

The NUC Chief stated, that being a Professor does not mean that the person can supervise very well, report said.

Prof. Rasheed was quoted to have said: 鈥淎 litany of problems have been identified, ranging from poor quality of doctoral theses occasioned by the fact that a lot of the PhD theses were sponsored by staff who themselves are underpaid.

鈥淲e wonder how somebody who is not well paid will use part of his salary while his wife watches him to go and do PhD research.

鈥淭hat was found as one of the major problems. One big elephant in the room is the issue of supervisors.鈥�

He further stated: 鈥淚n Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, there is an assumption which has proven to be wrong 鈥� Because somebody is a Professor does not mean that he can supervise very well.

鈥淲e have issues of people who may be described as meddlesome interlopers in fields they are not competent to supervise.

鈥淪o, when you find such supervisors, students are victims of interminable doctoral programmes.

鈥淵ou spend one year searching for a topic because the Professor is not grounded in the field and is not humble enough to say he does not understand the methodology because he doesn鈥檛 have time to read it before.

鈥淪o all of these problems lead to frustration and at the end, the product or quality of the school is not what it should be.

“And of course, if you put this against the backdrop of the critical role which doctoral research is expected to play in terms of innovation, creating new relevant knowledge by generating knowledge that is marketable for goods and services converted to goods and services.鈥�

The NUC said that 鈥渁ll of these have an effect in terms of establishing of nexus between doctoral training and national development as a whole.

鈥淔or us at the NUC, this step being taken by the committee is long in coming and it is very important because we hope that this will be the beginning of disaggregating the issues and challenges of post-doctoral education in Nigeria, doctoral supervision in terms of the timeliness, quality, and relevance of research projects.鈥�

The Executive Secretary added: 鈥淥f course, we are in the Committee of Vice-Chancellors, which is leading in terms of dealing with the issue of plagiarism.

鈥淪o, in most of the theses these days, if you check, there is a huge problem of copyright infringement.

鈥淲e are very hopeful that with this committee in place, we expect better output in terms of postgraduate and post-doctoral thesis, greater output in terms of quality of relevant research findings that are good entrepreneurs and impact on national development.鈥�

Considering curriculum content review and development

Rasheed also said in order to avoid 鈥渢his transfer of obsolescence and outdated ideas, both the teachers and the students will continue to engage in constantly moving the frontiers of knowledge.

鈥淚t is on this note that we want to wish you well and to assure the NUC is solidly behind you in terms of taking this initiative forward and we are looking forward to a very tangible output.鈥�

Prof. Ekanem Braide, President of Nigerian Academy of Science, in her goodwill message, said the Nigerian Government has declared many times that it is working to diversify the economy and move away from overdependence on oil.

Braide, however noted that 鈥渨hat is yet to be seen is our effort at increasing our research capacity as an unavoidable requirement for achieving such diversification.鈥�

She recommended improvement on the number and quality of PhD supervisors, the report stated.

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