Education

Bursary for students of tertiary institutions: the myth and reality

Mar 29, 2023Mar 29, 2023 awouniversity

By Opeyemi Babalola The need to encourage learning and reward excellence still remains one of the standpoints behind the innovation of bursary today. Consequently, since its introduction, bursary has evolved over the years in the education system by helping to reduce the financial burden borne by parents as they strive to fund their wards’ education. Records have shown that various governments from the 1960s to early 2000s have adopted the scheme as a rescue mechanism to aid students and help them realise their educational dreams. To…

Inventing the Wheel: Hosting a Successful Virtual Book Launch

Mar 27, 2023Mar 27, 2023 awouniversity

BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog Guest BloggerMar 17By Caroline Goldberg Igra, Ph.D January 2022: Publication date was approaching. Time to launch my book. I couldn’t stop thinking about the lovely launch of my first book, people milling around and smiling, picking up a copy and asking for my signature, attentive faces regarding me as I read aloud. I’d felt loved and appreciated by the crowd of supporters that had gathered to hear my words on that summer evening. But this was different. We were in the middle of yet one more wave…

Digital Technology in Capacity Development: Enabling Learning and Supporting Change

Feb 23, 2023Feb 23, 2023 awouniversity

This book focuses on digital approaches to capacity development, reflecting the greater interest in how digital tools and platforms can be used for capacity development in the ‘Global South’. While Covid-19 demonstrated some of the benefits of online learning, the widespread, often uncritical adoption of online tools driven by necessity has left many with an experience of ‘emergency online learning’. This book aims to assist in the design of technology-enhanced capacity development by sharing evidence of practices that are principled rather than rushed; inclusive rather than creating new digital divides.…

SU leaders urge government to stop politicising education sector

Nov 30, 2022Nov 30, 2022 awouniversity

Student leaders have urged governments at all levels to stop playing politics with the educational sector of the country, saying such action may further compound the woes of the sector. In this interview with OPEYEMI BABALOLA, the students’ union leaders at the Niger State College of Education, Minna, and Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Muhammad Sulaiman and Jerry Dickson respectively, also called on their counterparts across universities to use their positions to cater to students’ interest and boost their welfare. Muhammad Sulaiman: Can we get to meet you? My name…

UK university workers begin strike over ‘falling pay, brutal workloads’

Nov 30, 2022Nov 30, 2022 awouniversity

Thousands of university and college staff in the United Kingdom, including lecturers, librarians and researchers, have declared a strike to demand pay increase and improved working conditions. The University and College Union (UCU), the UK trade union for university staff, said the strike, referred to as the biggest in decades, is to improve quality in the education sector. The UCU “represents over 120,000 academics, lecturers, trainers, instructors, researchers, managers, administrators, computer staff, librarians, technicians, professional staff and postgraduates in universities, colleges, prisons, adult education and training organisations across the UK”.…

Seven months of ASUU strike: Our pains, by parents, students, and lecturers

Sep 26, 2022Sep 26, 2022 awouniversity

“Government should please find a common ground to resolve this issue. We can’t keep watching while our students remain at home without finishing what they already started. We parents are trying our best to give the best to our children in terms of education, please do something to save these children from becoming terrorists in the country.” By Opeyemi Babalola Barring any last minute softening of heart, Nigerian students in public universities will enter another month still at home, making it the eighth. Only yesterday, government asked that Vice Chancellors…

Why incessant ASUU strike hasn’t impacted students’ population in private universities

Sep 15, 2022Sep 15, 2022 awouniversity

Professor Reuben Jiya Kolo is the 4th Vice Chancellor of Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State. In this interview with Opeyemi Babalola, Prof. Kolo gave reasons the incessant ASUU strike has not impacted students’ population in private universities in spite of their stable calendar. He also expressed concern over increase spate of unemployment and how to tackle the menace. He underscored the importance of research and how collaboration between industries and universities can enhance development. It is claimed that persistent strikes in public universities are giving private universities an edge in terms of…

ASUU Strike: Nwajiuba apologises to Nigerian students

May 18, 2022May 18, 2022 awouniversity

•Says FG will implement new funding structure for public universities soon By Opeyemi Babalola The former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has apologized to the Nigerian students affected in the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities. Speaking when he featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, which was monitored by University Times International, he said, “I do apologise to Nigerian students because as their minister, I will take responsibility. But also, on behalf of the Federal Government, I would say ‘please understand what the issues…

As UK industrial disputes drag on, should union rethink tactics?

May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 awouniversity

UCU pushes on with shrinking rounds of strike action despite calls to regroup and rethink Culled from Times Higher Education Source: Tom Williams Summer came early the last time members of the UK’s main higher education union were on strike, with picket lines blessed with a rare bout of sunshine in mid-March. The announcement that further action is coming – including 10 days of strikes and a marking boycott – takes the long-running disputes over pay, pensions and working conditions into the summer itself, with campuses bracing for disruption during the all-important exam season.…

UCU announces marking boycott and 10 days of strikes over pay

May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 awouniversity

Staff at 41 universities may refuse to assess students’ work, meaning that graduations could be delayed, but exact dates for action are yet to be set. From Times Higher Education Source: Eleanor Bentall UK universities will be hit by a marking boycott and further strikes as part of a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, but the University and College Union is yet to confirm when the action will take place. Delegates at the union’s special higher education conference decided on the next steps after a quarter of branches polled achieved a mandate to take…