Commercialise Nigeria universities, says MOUAU VC

Prof. Hillary Edeoga, the Vice Chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), has advocated that all universities be run as businesses to enhance service delivery.

Edeoga made the call in a telephone interview with NAN on Thursday in Abuja. According to Edeoga, university education is also a social service and must operate efficiently as a business in order to deliver on its mission as a social service.

“Business embodies five important components – target group, need, enterprise, system and proprietor.

“In case of a university, the target group is students; the need is for knowledge; the enterprise is the process of satisfying the need for knowledge; the system is the management team; the proprietor in the case of MOUAU is the Federal Government as represented by the Governing Council, the management and the Vice Chancellor.

“If the management succeeds in setting up and servicing a good system, the students will pour in the case of MOUAU,” he said.

The vice chancellor said that the student population of the school when he took over in 2011 was 11,000, but the population had risen to 23,000 in 2014.

Edeoga said that if what was happening in MOUAU was replicated in other universities, it would go a long way in reducing the number of students seeking admission outside the shores of the country.

He added that the internally generated revenue (IGR) profile of the institution had grown over the years through successful business ventures.

He disclosed that some of the business ventures initiated by the institution included commercial fish ponds, poultry and piggery farm.

However, the vice chancellor said that the IGR was used in executing development projects, including hostels, within the university.