'Universities That Can't Cope Should Close'

Professor Micheal Hodd

interview

Prof. Michael Hodd is the Vice Chancellor of Baze University, a private university in Abuja, where he also teaches History of Management and Science and Society.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Prof. Hodd: I studied Economics in Cambridge before going to the London School of Economics to do a Masters' degree. Afterwards I went to Princeton University where I ran a PhD programme. My first job was to work for the Ministry of Finance for six months, after I finished from Princeton. Then I went to teach in a university in Melbourne, Australia. I was there for the first two years they opened. It was a very good experience at the opening and start of a new university. After two years, I moved back to the UK where I taught at one of the London University Colleges which was the school of Oriental and African Studies. While there I began to work on economic problems of Africa. After almost 20 years there, I then moved to the University of Westminster where I became a Professor of Economics. From there I went to a university in Tanzania where I was the first Vice Chancellor and came from there here, to Baze.

How do you regard the syllabus and educational techniques in Tanzania against those in Nigeria?

In both cases things are much more flexible in East Africa. It was quite possible to introduce new methods very easily there. The desire of the Tanzanians to have an institution with a structured organisation and teaching was strong and based on British lines. It was pretty much what they had been used to. They feel that they bring the qualities as exist in the British system where there is high standard of teaching and integrity over the processes of admissions and examinations. Also, there are new teaching methods like using teaching aids and computer system and so on to enhance the students who are studying here at Baze.

Why is it difficult to introduce ideas in Nigeria?

There's much more resistance in Nigeria to changes. You can't really do that in Nigeria without thinking what the basis is for saying something. It's alright to say we don't do that because of academic reasons x, y, z, but it's not sensible to say we don't do this because that's not the custom in Nigeria.

How do you think teaching methods and academic contents can be improved upon to benefit students more?

There's been a movement away from teaching, the traditional lecturer which is the blackboard and lecturing students to a more students' oriented teaching. It is a method we have adopted here at Baze. Students may memorise lectures that have been given them; the current trend is to get students to do critical thinking which will lead to better understanding and should involve problem solving. That's what you do when you are working. You are thinking about problems and trying to find ways around it. They need to understand what the difference is, that is why critical thinking is so important. They should be aware of their problems and be able to address them.

Going on from what you just said, do you see an attitude of change on the part of students in this regard?

Well, from here at Baze I see change because of the approach we apply. It may be a problem in the beginning, because they have been used to something else. But like everywhere, the good students adapt quite quickly. They are asking questions, raising issues, looking at other sources and analyzing what they have been taught. All that interaction gives them a real grasp of what is involved in making informed decisions even beyond here.

Many young Nigerians are preaching 'self dependency', 'look out of the box', etc. Do you see the quality of students produced in Nigeria being more self reliant and dependable?

The trend is everywhere. When I was a student the trend was go to school, graduate and find a good job. It never crossed my mind to start up my own business. Maybe if I had, I would be more a success today, because there was the possibility. It's now quite clear to me that many people have a good entrepreneurial attitude and they should be encouraged wherever possible to start their own businesses. There is no doubt about it that Nigerians are very entrepreneurial, very good at business. Continuously people are coming up with ideas of businesses they want to start on the campus; something that couldn't happen in the United Kingdom. In many regards, in Nigeria, because most of them have to fend for themselves, they already have an entrepreneurial spirit. I think this is a very promising area and one that should be encouraged.

There are a lot of challenges establishing university in Nigeria. What's the story been like for you?

All universities are subject to a regulatory system all over the world and none of them are absolutely perfect. One thing I would really want the regulatory system to do is to establish standards so that when people go to university they will know the quality of education they get is as they expect. Education should be of a particular standard and level. The regulatory process in Nigeria is more comprehensive and takes much longer than in the UK or from my experience in Tanzania. The NUC has a tremendously complicated job in front of it. There are over a hundred federal, state and private universities. It's a huge task. My personal view is that there are various things they could do to streamline the process to make it easier for universities to meet the requirements.

Accreditation in a lot of universities including private is an ongoing problem. Is it a problem you've encountered and if not are you taking any precautions against it?

There needs to be a process of the NUC paying a visit to the university, making a report and giving the institution time to address the issues raised before the NUC returns. I don't expect us to have any particular difficulties here. Anyone who visits will see that we have excellent structures and staff in place. Universities that start out and don't have the basic resources, equipment and staff, it's quite right that the NUC should close them down and give them an opportunity to put their house in order. Many people have been very enthusiastic about staff in private universities here; much more so than in the UK. Although, all the universities in the UK rely on government support, there's probably only one university there you would regard as a private university. That's possibly because it is such a huge task to set up a private university. Many here may have started private universities without understanding what a colossal task it is. I discouraged the proprietor of Baze from starting a university when he said that was his next project. He didn't take my advice, but has done a superb job of it. We've made progress since then with the number of students, amenities and structures which all seem to appeal to parents.

Generally, in Nigeria most vice chancellors and deans do not teach because of their workload, but you are. How do you manage that?

I love to teach and find it enjoyable. I thought it was important to get firsthand feedback on how the students responded to teaching techniques. I wanted to know whether they were shy and lacked confidence; whether they had difficulties expressing themselves and other such concerns. Teaching gives me the opportunity to do this. In one of our programmes, I teach things that have to do with the industrial revolution, Marxism, the great depression. I think it's something to encourage. We encourage all our deans to teach. I feel if you've got senior people with good international reputation, they should be put before the students so that the students can have the benefit of their expertise.

You are a purely IT-based institution; how do you see Nigeria in the trend of using teaching aids and modern teaching methods especially where many youths still don't have access to IT facility?

I think it's very difficult for public universities to implement these new ideas, because you need to have been exposed to them and have experience using them even before university. It's quite a big problem with changing people over. We have programmes here for our Nigerian staff. They are quite receptive, but it does take some effort to bring about these changes. This also requires the availability of some resources like access to internet, using modern communication methods and using new teaching ideas. One of the things we are looking to introduce to Economics is computer-assisted learning. We've put up programmes developed in the UK where a student starts on a particular topic, there is something for him to read and then series of problems for him to undertake.