No fewer than 348 vice-chancellors of Nigerian universities under the aegis of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) have converged on Ilorin, Kwara State, to deliberate on the future of the nation’s university system.
The gathering, which is expected to develop a roadmap for Nigerian universities to compete effectively with institutions globally, is being held as part of the CVCNU’s 37th Annual General Assembly Conference.
The conference, themed “Building Resilient Universities for Nigeria,” is taking place at the Main Auditorium of the University of Ilorin.
The Special Guest of Honour, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, charged Nigerian universities to move beyond their traditional role of awarding degrees and reposition themselves as centres of innovation, practical skills, research and national development.
Tinubu, who was represented at the event by the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaibat Saidu Ahmad, said sustainable economic transformation could not be achieved without corresponding investment in human capital.
He described universities as critical partners in the Federal Government’s development agenda and stressed the need for institutions to produce graduates capable of responding to the demands of a rapidly changing global economy.
“Universities are more than institutions where degrees are awarded. They are centres of knowledge creation, innovation, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, cultural development and national transformation,” he said.
The President said Nigerian universities must produce graduates who are academically sound, innovative, ethical, digitally competent, entrepreneurial, adaptable and capable of solving real-world problems.
He urged university authorities to reassess the quality and relevance of graduates being produced, particularly in the face of rapid developments in artificial intelligence, automation, biotechnology, data science, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
Tinubu asked: “The question before us is no longer simply whether our universities are producing graduates. The more foundational question is: what kind of graduates are we producing? How effectively are our universities preparing them to contribute to Nigeria’s economic and social transformation?”
He said his administration was implementing reforms to improve the quality, relevance, accessibility, affordability and accountability of tertiary education.
According to him, the Federal Ministry of Education is implementing the Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative, with emphasis on institutional governance, quality assurance, research and innovation, digital transformation, skills development and stronger partnerships between universities and industries.
The President also called for greater emphasis on practical training, stressing that academic knowledge must be complemented with hands-on experience.
He disclosed that the government had commenced a review of curricula, particularly in agriculture, to increase practical learning.
“We are moving away from 70 per cent theory and 30 per cent practical to a robust 80 per cent practical and 20 per cent theory,” he said.
Tinubu added that new accreditation requirements would compel universities, faculties and departments of agriculture to establish partnerships with relevant industries, with students expected to undertake industrial attachments during their academic programmes.
He said the approach would gradually be extended to other disciplines through the review of the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).
The President further urged vice-chancellors to strengthen research partnerships with government, industries, development partners and communities to ensure research findings are translated into products, services, policies, technologies and practical solutions to national challenges.
“Nigeria cannot become a globally competitive economy by relying primarily on the consumption of knowledge generated elsewhere,” he said.
He added that universities must become engines of research, innovation, technology development and entrepreneurship.
Tinubu also emphasised the importance of effective university governance, urging the CVCNU to strengthen accountability, improve institutional planning and ensure prudent management of public resources.
He noted that vice-chancellors were not only academic leaders but also managers, employers, financial stewards, community leaders and strategic partners in national development.
“Leadership, vice-chancellorship, is not about research. It is about administrative skills. It is about the ability to manage both research and humans at the same time,” he said.
On graduate employability, Tinubu urged universities to ensure their curricula reflect the changing requirements of the labour market.
He called for stronger internship programmes, entrepreneurship initiatives, work-based learning and university-industry partnerships, saying graduates should leave university not only as job seekers but also as value creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, professionals, researchers and responsible citizens.
The President commended the CVCNU for sustaining its annual platform for dialogue and collaboration and congratulated the University of Ilorin for hosting the conference.
He subsequently declared the conference open and urged participants to work towards building a more competitive, innovative, inclusive and responsible university system.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the CVCNU and Vice-Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada, Prof. Lawrence Ikechukwu Ezemonye, said the Nigerian university system had reached a critical stage where mere survival was no longer enough.
Ezemonye said universities must transform into centres of innovation, ethical leadership, research and national development rather than remain disconnected from the needs of society.
“We meet at an hour when the Nigerian university is being tested as it has seldom been tested since the years immediately after independence. The test is not of our survival, for we have survived much. It is of our relevance to a young, restless and expectant nation,” he said.
He explained that resilience must go beyond coping with inadequate funding, industrial disputes, population pressures, technological disruption and the migration of skilled academics.
According to him, resilient universities must be capable of adapting to emerging realities while maintaining their core responsibilities of teaching, research, character formation and service to society.
Ezemonye identified governance and financial sustainability, artificial intelligence and technology-driven transformation, university-government-industry relations, human capital, academic excellence, and the welfare of students and staff as areas requiring urgent attention.
He warned that Nigeria could not achieve sustainable development without a strong university system capable of producing the professionals, researchers and leaders needed to drive the economy.
He noted that Nigerian universities had produced doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, administrators and leaders who had contributed significantly to national development.
However, he cautioned that the country could not continue relying solely on the achievements of previous generations, stressing that universities must be repositioned to respond to artificial intelligence, demographic expansion and increasing global competition.
“Inheritance is not destiny,” Ezemonye declared, urging university authorities to rebuild their institutions to make them fit for the emerging global environment.
The CVCNU chairman also called for a shift away from viewing universities as isolated “Ivory Towers”, saying they should instead function as innovation engines, knowledge centres, community anchors and the nation’s compass for ethical leadership.
He urged participants to confront the challenges facing the university system and develop practical, evidence-based solutions.
“The challenges before us are too grave and too urgent to be obscured by politeness or deference. We must speak plainly about the failures of the past and the demands of the future,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, warned universities against violating newly approved regulatory guidelines, particularly those governing the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees.
Ribadu said universities must not award more than three honorary doctorate degrees at a single convocation and disclosed that serving public office holders should not receive such honours under the new guidelines.
“It has been bastardised in the past. So, for now, we say please, you are doing well. When you leave office, the university will honour you,” he said.
He warned that universities that violate the guidelines could face sanctions, including suspension or refusal of resource verification for new academic programmes for up to two years.
“One of which is suspension or refusal by NUC to do resource verification for new programmes,” Ribadu said.
He noted that such sanctions could affect universities seeking approval for programmes in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, data science and robotics.
Earlier, the guest speaker, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, challenged Nigerian universities to move beyond merely surviving recurring challenges and deliberately redesign their institutions to withstand disruptions, promote innovation and deliver greater value to society.
Speaking on “Reimagining Nigerian Universities for Resilience: Leadership, Innovation and Sustainability in a Disruptive Era,” Oloyede said resilience should be understood as the ability to anticipate risks, adapt intelligently and transform institutions rather than simply endure persistent shortages and dysfunction.
He described the conference theme as timely, given the pressures facing universities, including funding constraints, rapid technological advancement, insecurity, climate change, demographic growth, industrial disputes, public distrust and changing labour market demands.
According to him, “Resilience is therefore not stubborn endurance. It is structured adaptation and disciplined renewal.”
Oloyede, who described leadership as “the first infrastructure of resilience”, argued that physical infrastructure and technology could not compensate for weak governance, poor judgement and a culture of impunity.
He urged vice-chancellors and governing councils to build institutions capable of outliving individual office holders.
He also stressed that strategic plans should guide university budgets, appointments, infrastructure development, partnerships and performance evaluation, rather than remain ceremonial documents.
