THE GUARDIAN
Amid a flurry of arguments about whether Nigeria produces enough first-class graduates or not, questions are also being asked about the contributions of these so-called geniuses to society’s advancement. With issues like “sex-for-grades,” “grades-for-sale,” and other detrimental practices still prevalent in the country’s ivory towers, many believe that these first-class graduates are failing to leverage their abilities to help address the country’s numerous challenges. As employers invest heavily to make some of these first-class graduates fit for purpose, stakeholders want the system appropriately rejigged to deliver game-changers that would contribute to finding solutions for Nigeria’s challenges, IYABO LAWAL reports.
The professor’s forehead wrinkled with a grin plastered on his face while his smile turned to confusion. Repeatedly he tapped his right foot on the floor while exchanging glances with his colleague, another professor.
In bewilderment, the co-worker, who sat next to him sighed in response and appeared to be suffocating in the packed, air-conditioned auditorium of the school as he attempted to untie his necktie.
As the name of the 85th student to earn a first-class degree was read out, the two educators yet again moaned and heaved. Amid their jarring silence, however, there were ululations of celebration as names of more first-class graduates kept ringing out.
While the eyes of the exceptional students shone like stars in a night sky, and their well-wishers animated, the two professors and their innumerable colleagues, who were not noticeable on the convocation were choking on the adulations showered on the first-class graduands. Stuck in the auditorium by protocol and duty, they endured a day that witnessed 140 first-class graduates.
“Something is wrong with our grading system. I am fine with 20 students with first-class degrees in this school. Not 100. No, not 140,” the bothered professor told his colleague when he found his voice. Expectedly, the latter concurred.
The duo’s private conversation is what the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, publicly re-echoed recently when he alleged that private universities in the country were guilty of grade inflation, and by implication, “increasing the number of first-class graduates.”
Of late, there appears to be a silent competition between public universities and private ones regarding who churns out the greatest number of first-class graduates per session.
While the propriety or otherwise of such a contest is best left at the doorstep of key stakeholders in the sector, how a country keeps producing this volume of first-class graduates but is still in the vice-like grip of poverty and under-development is a topic that will require serious attention in the years to come.
Osodeke’s allegation has reignited what is more than a decade-long contentious issue of the number of first-class graduates that private universities produce each year compared to what their government-owned institutions do at the end of every session.
A couple of years ago, Prof. of Pharmacology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Idris Oyemitan, could not hide his angst about the rising roll call of first-class graduates. With disdain in his tone, he stated: “It is absurd that students that failed to obtain anything close to 250 in their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) score, or post-UTME examination are now being awarded first-class degrees. I want to criticise these questionable awards from four main angles: the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) grades of these ‘glorified’ first-class graduates cannot match those in public universities.”
Oyemitan claimed that many of them scored below average or earned minimum scores, which qualified them to gain admission into public universities. He further alleged: “Most of these private universities cannot compete with public ones in the area of qualified lecturers as they mostly rely on visiting, part-time and sometimes, ‘grossly incompetent’ academic staff to churn out these graduates.” He, therefore, called for a large-scale probe of the private universities. Osodeke’s public complaint might suggest he is seeking a similar inquest.
However, Prof. Steve West, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West of England, faced with a similar situation in the United Kingdom said: “We believe the Office for Students (OFS) must be careful not to assume that students with lower entry grades, typically from more disadvantaged backgrounds, cannot achieve first-class degrees.”
Many students have not looked back to achieve what used to be an impossible feat, which was meant only for a handful of so-called geniuses. For example, between 2010 and 2020, a period of 10 years, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) alone produced over 1,000 first-class graduates.
According to Statisense, in 2019, Nigeria produced 213,715 university graduates, with 2.4 per cent achieving first-class. But the Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Lesotho, and former VC, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Prof. Sola Fajana, is quick to dispel fears about the rise of first-class degrees being a fluke or a “cash-and-carry” phenomenon.
According to the Professor of Labour and Human Resource Management, the gradual rise in the number of first-class degree holders reflects an advancement in knowledge and access to information through the Internet.
Numbers and nuances
UNILAG’S latest figure for first class graduates is 340 (out of 17,464). This represents 1.95 per cent of the graduates. In its latest outing, the University of Ibadan (UI) had a higher percentage – 4.57. Of its 6,865 graduates, 418 ended up with first-class degrees. The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) graduated 256 first-class degree holders out of 25,234 graduates. This is 1.78 per cent of the graduating class, while the UNN’s percentage in the last convocation was 2.22 per cent – 252 first-class graduates out of 12,962 graduates. UNIBEN had 1.25 per cent, with 179 first-class out of 14,254 graduates.
With a total of 1,607 graduates within the same period, Covenant University, Ogun State produced 339 first class, representing 12.09 per cent. Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) had 7.4 per cent with its 148 first-class graduates out of 2,000 graduands. Veritas University with 34 first-class graduates out of 519 graduands recorded a 6.55 percentage. Igbinedion University, Edo State’s percentage stood at 12.5 per cent with 150 first-class graduates from a total of 1,200 graduates. Babcock University recorded 6.58 per cent with 136 first-class graduates out of 2,065.
A quick summary of the last five academic sessions at the University of Ibadan (UI) showed that the school churned out 241 first-class in 2017/2018; 206 (2018/2019); 314 (2021/2022); 418 (2022/2023), and 418 (2024).
The UNN recorded 246 first-class graduates in the 2018/2019 session; 288 (2019/2020), 246 (2020/2021), and 252 (2021/2022). UNILORIN: 194 (2018/2019); 194 (in 2019/2020); 450 (in 2020/2021); 256 (2021-2022); and 256 (2022/2023). UNIBEN: 125 (2018/2019); 206 (2021/2022); and 179 in the 2022/2023 academic session.
Covenant University 2019 had 214 first-class graduates; 223 (2020); 216 (2021); 238 (2022); 248 (2023); and 339 (2024), while Babcock had 62 (2019); 66 (2020); 82 (2021); 110 (2022), 136 (2023); and 148 (2024). ABUAD had 12 (2018); 99 (2018/2019); 215 (2019/2020); 99 (2021); 121 (2022); 141 (2023); and 226 (2024).
The American University of Nigeria (AUN) had 37 first-class graduates in the 2019/2020 academic session; 54 (2020-2021); 33 (2022/2023); and 68 (2021/2022). Veritas 32 (2019); 26 (2020); 30 (2022); 28 (2023), and 56 in (2024), while Igbinedion University has 16 (2020); 13 (2022); 55 (2023); and 45 (2023/2024).
How much is too much?
CITING a 2019 report, a public analyst, Nkiru Peters, noted that of the 127,023 students who completed their studies in the 2018/2019 academic session in 36 Nigerian universities, 2,288 graduated with first-class. This is a mere 1.8 per cent of the total graduates produced and certainly not in the majority.
At that time, UNILAG recorded 271 first-class out of 6,992 graduates, representing 3.9 per cent, while UI had 241 first-class out of 7,330, representing 3.3 per cent. At the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, 113 graduated with first class out of 10,994 students, representing 1.03 per cent. At the University of Port Harcourt, 106 first-class graduates were recorded as 4,771 graduated that year, representing 2.22 per cent.
Among private universities, 215 students of Covenant University were awarded first class out of 1,580 that graduated, which is 13.6 per cent. ABUAD produced 99 first class out of 979 graduates, representing 10.1 per cent; Babcock had 62 first class out of its 1,926 graduates, representing 3.2 per cent.
“The statistics showed that students that got first class in both public and private universities are in the minority,” Peters pointed out. “How did we arrive at the bogus conclusion that first-class degrees are probably becoming two or 10 a penny?”
A former vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka has a different perspective. At a workshop facilitated by the British Council in Abuja, he gave statistics on the percentage of graduates from the University of Ibadan and their classes of degrees.
“During the lunch break, a Nigerian based in the United Kingdom who had listened to me pulled me aside. He told me that if the UI were a university in the United Kingdom, no prospective student would apply to the school. Upon interrogation, he said that the degree output from UI was simply mediocre because less than five per cent of our students finished with first-class degrees, whereas in the UK, as high as 20 per cent of the graduating cohort finished in the first-class category,” stated Olayinka.
Sifting sand from stone
ANOTHER respected scholar and former vice-chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, admits that for good reasons, the award of first-class degrees is prevalent in private universities.
“Allow me to say, however, that there is a nuanced dimension to this evolving situation. I had the privilege of working in a private university at a point in time and in its bid to award scholarships, the National Universities Commission (NUC) organised a competitive examination for first-class graduates across the entire Nigerian University System (NUS). Most of the scholarships available were won by first-class graduates of a particular private institution. This shows that there is a measure of authenticity regarding the degree of some of these private universities.
“However, it is a misnomer to think uniformly about private universities. They come in various shapes. Some are well-regarded and can hold their own nationally and globally, while some are mere glorified secondary schools. So, when those in the latter category have several first-class degrees, one only has to sniff,” Soremekun stated.
For Prof. Olusola Oyewole, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has contributed immensely to making academic resources more available to students and by extension to the rise of first-class graduates.
“To that extent, where students are serious with their studies, it is easier to make a first-class today than it was in the past. The methods of assessment are also more liberal today than they were in the past. With this, it is very easy for serious-minded students to score higher grades,” Oyewole, a Professor of Food Science and Technology, and former vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) stated.
He added that improvements in learning systems, which are becoming more learner-focused than teacher-centred, have room for conscientious students to explore and research widely on their own, any subject beyond the four walls of the classroom.
But for some strange reasons, despite assurances from scholars like Oyewole and Fajana, several academics, especially in public-owned universities still feel uncomfortable with an increasing number of first-class graduates.
Appreciating first-class graduates from a different prism
A former vice-chancellor of Caleb University, and Pro-Chancellor of Chrisland University, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju, has a somewhat different view regarding the raging argument.
He said: “My position, which might sound elitist or arrogant, is that following W.E.B. Du Bois, university education is for the talented tenth. By extension, a tenth (at most) of the talented tenth should be in the first-class category because making that grade connotes that you are virtually as good as your lecturers.
“In other words, you could start teaching in your department for the mandatory national service with a first-class degree. Still, in context, we should understand that subjects and disciplines differ. In the exact sciences, it is possible to exceed the expected tenth of the talented tenth as first-class graduates. In federal universities, for example, that is expected in the natural sciences as well as accounting.
“But producing five first-class graduates in a Law or History set of 50 students should be an exception, rather than the rule. For context, my department at the University of Nigeria did not produce another first-class graduate for the next 21 years. I attribute that to insistence on maintaining high standards, which is also context-based,” said Olukoju.
For Prof. Olayinka, rather than talk of a first-class brain in the context of examination results, perhaps “we are better off talking about first-class performance. A student who graduated in first-class is outstanding, suggesting that he must have scored A’s in most of the courses and maybe a few Bs. Such a student must have excelled as a result of hard work, high-quality teaching faculty, and an enabling environment conducive to teaching and learning. Such a student may not necessarily be a genius.”
In painting a portrait of what a first-class student should look like, a professor of Geography, Mohammed Adamu, elected to be pragmatic, and in sync with Olayinka.
According to him, all that is required to get a first-class in most Nigerian universities is for a student to score 70 per cent or more in his/her courses, and any student who makes this a goal “can easily achieve it, especially in private universities where there are fewer distractions and better learning facilities than what obtains in the poorly-funded Nigerian public universities.”
Failing to measure up in the workplaces
THE mention of a first-class graduate a few years back used to conjure the image of a genius, but Nireti Adebayo, a human resources expert regrets that now, a lot of first-class graduates are not ready for the workplace because they do not have the required skills, even though they may be qualified academically.
According to her: “In those days, a university graduate was already like a full-blown man, or woman, intelligent, street-smart with this level of maturity. It is not like that anymore, and those soft skills are also not there.”
Mojeed Adebayo, a former president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) added that a lot of money is still being spent on retraining these graduates before they fit snuggly into the workplace.
Adebayo said: “The country’s education curriculum should be looked into to prepare students for the world of work because when they get to the corporate world, companies that employ graduates still spend a huge amount of money yearly retraining them, whether they are first-class, second-class upper or lower.”
“The university curriculum is also too theoretical. The entrepreneurship element is zero. The corporate world element is zero. You just have to start retraining them from the beginning. Some organisations now, even after training them, do exams and if you fail, you go back to your house.”
He said that is why the CIPM is in collaboration with some universities to train their students as professionals. Such students graduate with professional certificates coupled with their university degrees.
“So, we are looking for more of such universities to tweak their curriculum to prepare these students for the corporate world because a lot of our graduates, whether they are first-class, second-class, or third-class, are not employable. The employability of our graduates is almost zero.” The HR expert emphasised that it was the reason that the CIPM kept looking for opportunities for intervention to bridge the gap between the town and gown.
Like Nigeria, like the UK
IN the United Kingdom (UK), the proportion of students graduating with top degrees has soared in the last five years, with a quarter of last year’s candidates leaving university with first-class degrees, dramatically increasing from just 17 per cent in 2016. Almost three-quarters of students achieved a second-class upper degree or higher five years ago, compared with just two-thirds. In the early 1990s, the proportion of students who graduated with a first class was far lower, at around eight per cent.
According to the Office for Students, in 2019/2020, about 36 per cent of students in the UK were awarded first-class degrees and it was 38 per cent in 2020/2021.
This is more than double the proportion of students awarded first class a decade earlier. In 2010/2011, the percentage of first-class graduates produced was less than 16 per cent. In the UK, a first-class degree is awarded to students who achieve a 70 per cent or higher grade.
This increasing army of first-class graduates has prompted many UK universities to introduce additional character reports alongside degree classifications, giving a more detailed breakdown of students’ academic performance and extra-curricula awards and activities.
What are private universities doing differently?
ACCORDING to Olayinka, the unique selling point of private universities is the stable academic calendar, unlike public universities, where there are frequent closures due to disagreements between the proprietors and the staff unions.
That said, Olayinka noted that “the class sizes in private universities are smaller, the staff-student ratio is much lower, the learning environment and facilities are newer and more modern, and there is stricter supervision and monitoring of teaching.”
However, experts noted that the students are not “necessarily superior, going by common entrance examination results, adding that the difference is in the systems that churn out the products and the standards set by operators of the universities.
For the Executive Director, Centre for American Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Prof Jonah Onuoha, federal universities don’t give adequate attention to their students. “If you are in a private university, they monitor attendance, which is not so in public institutions.
According to him: “The plethora of first-class graduates is not making any impact on the nation given the Nigerian situation, as many of them leave the country, and as such, are virtually lost to the nation. For those who remain, the conditions in Nigeria are so inclement that they cannot thrive in any meaningful way. It is like a ripe seed on a stony ground. It will not bear fruits. So, rather than the current rush to produce first-class degrees by both private and public universities, the more prudent thing to do is to give a new lease of life to our universities.
How public universities can reinvent the wheel
EXPERTS are of the view that enrollment into the conventional system should be tied to carrying capacity, that is, adequate staffing and facilities- library, classroom space, sufficient seats for students, functional audio-visual equipment, and hostel accommodation, among others.
Class sizes should be limited to a manageable number. There should be team teaching of courses and employment of teaching assistants for senior professors who are on their way out. There should be rewards for effective teaching, student feedback, and respectable remuneration for university staff across the board.
In addition to this, Prof Olayinka said: “It is good to note that public universities have now realised the need to run a student-centred system, so, things are changing for the better. A situation in which a lecturer would gleefully claim that no student can score an A in his/her class is not to be encouraged. In most universities now, including public universities, students now have opportunities to access their lecturers as part of efforts to improve service delivery.
“We should be more worried that our first class graduates decline to undergo postgraduate studies in Nigeria to replace their teachers and simply disappear into the corporate world, or migrate in droves to foreign countries for graduate studies or employment and never return.”
Onuoha on his part emphasised: “About 80 per cent of our first-class graduates are abroad. As far as I know, the first-class graduates we had last year from private universities have all enrolled or are trying to enrol in foreign universities. If a first-class graduate from Nigeria is looking for a job abroad, it is not a problem for the universities or the graduates. Anytime the government decides to put a proper structure in place, the best brains abroad will come back home. As it is now, the best brains are still going out. Even as they are producing them, they are going out.”
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN THE GUARDIAN
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