PRE-DEGREE/CERTIFICATE REGISTRATION/SCHOOL FEES

UNIPORT Alumnus Tasks Nigerian Varsities On Admission

A 1984 graduate of the University of Port Harcourt and Professor of Economics, Nimi Wariboko, has challenged Nigerian universities to work towards attracting the best brains and maintaining academic standards through strict adherence to stipulated admission requirements and provision of an enabling environment for staff and students. 

Reacting to the observation, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ajienka, assured the Visiting Scholar and other stakeholders in the affairs of the University that genuine efforts are ongoing to adhere strictly to the Institution’s carrying-capacity and admission quota as a means of ensuring quality graduate harvest. He also told his guest of other ongoing efforts aimed at repositioning the University for greater service delivery, assuring all stakeholders that his Administration was fully committed to building a world-class Entrepreneurial University that can compete with the very best in the world.

Explaining that while universities abroad are open to all cadres of persons, a quality control mechanism is put in place to ensure that candidates are admitted based on their level of intellectual capabilities. Professor Wariboko advised that “Every University should work towards attracting the best brains to ensure sustenance of high breed intellects and outstanding talents for the benefit of mankind. Universities do themselves a huge disservice when they admit unsuitable students who cannot measure up to the required standards. At the Postgraduate levels of education, we should admit only the very best”.

“Part of my intellectual DNA draws from the quality training I received from world-class teachers in the University of Port Harcourt close to 30 years ago. You cannot be a good Scholar without being eclectic in your thinking; and this is what UNIPORT taught me as a student”, the erudite Scholar said, the intellectual direction of his adult life was  on his earlier exposure to multi-disciplinary approach to knowledge. 

 
Uniport Alumnus Tasks Nigerian Varsities on Admission
 
Speaking when he paid  a Courtesy Visit on the Vice- Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ajienka last Wednesday, Professor Wariboko, listed internet communication with focus on online Journals, availability of books and research materials, as strategies for improving capacity-building in Nigerian Universities, which according to him have grossly degenerated in educational standards.
 
The world-acclaimed Economist, who blamed the current poor harvest of Graduates on what he described as a poor feeding system from the Primary and Secondary levels of education, lamented that “Students are no longer going to the Universities fully prepared as was the case during his time. Says he: “There is absolutely nothing the most gifted Professor can achieve if the students who turn up in his class are not of the right quality. Students with defective backgrounds do not enrich the learning process and cannot add value to the system. We, therefore, need to take another look at the lower levels of our educational system if we ever hope to feed talented students into the tertiary levels of education as is the case in other countries”, Professor Wariboko advised. 
 
Wariboko, who has been designated as a Goodwill Ambassador and Visiting Professor in the University of Port Harcourt,  advised the University Management to always lay emphasis on attracting quality students, world-class Professors and provide them with best facilities to unleash their latent potentials, adding that it would not only draw attention to the University, but also has the capacity to contribute global knowledge pool.  
Recalling with nostalgia his undergraduate experiences, Professor Wariboko, who currently lectures at the Andover Newton Theological School, USA, said that the multi-disciplinary training he received from the University, has enabled him to transit to new  fields of study, including Accounting, Management, Finance, History and Religion with latest interest in Economics Ethics, which go far beyond the narrow confines of Neo-Classical Economic paradigms.
 
Submitting that sustaining a University is a very expensive venture, he suggested a new policy on Endowments, creating good memories that could encourage Alumni to donate, annual fundraising/dinner and homecoming events, regretting that the culture of Endowments has yet to catch up in Nigeria. He expressed delight that the University is moving forward, with immense capacity to be one of the very best in the Country. 
Professor Wariboko, who is the Occupant of Katherine B. Stalwart Chair in Economics Ethics, promised to work out modalities to organise public lectures, seminars supervision and mentorship programmes in his Alma Mater, as a way of giving back to his Alma-Mater. He also disclosed plans to establish a University of Port Harcourt branch of the Alumni Association in the New York area as a way of strengthening the relationship between the University and its graduates there. 
You are here: Home PRE-DEGREE/CERTIFICATE REGISTRATION/SCHOOL FEES News Featured UNIPORT Alumnus Tasks Nigerian Varsities On Admission