THE ALLURE OF ELIZADE UNIVERSITY, ILARA
MOKIN
Looking
for an idyllic university that offers tranquility and impeccable allure? Then you
will be hard pressed to beat the charm of Elizade University in llara-Mokin,
Ondo, State, Nigeria.
Providing
a sumptuous visual feast for a first time visitor, the entire university
ln
today's Nigeria where dearth of infrastructure and other myriad of challenges
are the bane of university system, the coming on board of Elizade University
within the context of provision of full value-chain of world class facilities
for
learning
and research unreservedly provides a deep sigh of relief for prospective students
who are desirous of taking advantage of good university education in a very
conducive ambience comparable to what obtains in the developed climes.
The
combination of hugely ambitious facilities of breathtaking beauty and grandeur,
coupled with its curriculum-content, structured to push the boundary of knowledge
acquisition to the very edge in its avowed fidelity to excellence in every
aspect, especially its world class laboratories, ICT infrastructure. seasoned
academic staff members that include expatriates clearly and without a jot of
doubt puts Elizade University on the path of quickly becoming a coveted
brand
and a distinctive citadel of luminous lustre in academic pursuit in Africa.
The
founder and visitor, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, a foremost dealer and chairman, Toyota
Nigeria Limited (TNL) is a compelling personage with a savoir fair that orbits
in the class of distinction in the business world.
Widely
acclaimed for his philanthropy and love for his people, his knack for
excellence and details in everything he puts his hand on, ranging from his
numerous business concerns to the breathtaking l8-hole golf course also etched
in llara-Mokin and currently considered the best in Africa has reflected in the
manner the new Elizade University is being unfurled.
It
becomes a desideratum therefore to put on record for posterity, the genuine
desire of Chief Michael Ade-Ojo in rescuing University Education in Nigeria
from its palpable doldrums and fill in the lacunae by coming with an ideal
university that will not only set the benchmark in terms of facilities and scholarship,
but also comparable to the best institutions in the United States of America, continental
Europe and South East Asia.
However
as the founder is wont to say, his decision to establish the institution was not
driven by the pulley of profit motive, but a consequence of his kindled
interest and unbridled passion for high-quality-content education in our clime
and service to humanity.
He
strongly believes that the antidote to the current craze for university education
outside the shores of the country by Nigeria youth on account of better
facilities abroad will a priori require such facilities to be replicated here
notwithstanding the enormous cost, hence his decision to float Elizade
University.
ln
this no holds bar interview with, MR. OMOLOLU ADEGBENRO, the registrar of the
university, the mission, vision and values
on
offer in the university were laid bare.
OLUDAISI
ADETARAMI captured the entire package.
Let's meet you
I
am Omololu Adegbenro, the registrar, Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo
State.
One can behold a world class
institution here. Can we know the mission of the proprietor for establishing
the school?
The
mission is to produce world class graduates who will be able to compete with
their peers anywhere in the world. But basically, the establishment of Elizade University,
Ilara-Mokin came into being for two reasons; one, to reduce the craze for overseas
education by the teeming Nigerian youth and the second one is to bring back the
lost glory of university education in this country.
However
the question now is, can you reduce the craze for overseas university
education
by Nigerian youth and why do they even go overseas for university
education?
Many of them go overseas for university education because of their belief that
the facilities there are better than the ones you can find here in Nigeria.
Even the teaching and the learning environment are better than what you can
find in Nigeria.
And
so what therefore can we do to actually reduce this craze not just by words of mouth
but by action? Of course, the solution is to
reduce
world class facilities that you can
find
only in the world class institutions overseas like in the United State, Europe,
Asia, South Africa e.t.c. And that is why in Elizade University, a lot of money
has been invested on facilities. We can say without any fear of contradiction
that our laboratories here in Elizade University are among the best in the
world. For instance, all the equipment you will find here are supplied and
installed by Eagle Scientific, a very popular company in Nottingham in the U.K.
if you visit any of our laboratories be it physics, chemistry, microbiology,
biology or computer science, the equipment are just wonderful. Even our
language laboratory is one in town.
The proprietor recently pronounced
that graduates of Elizade University would not be job seekers but job creators.
Are you incorporating entrepreneurial studies into your curriculum?
That
is already being included into the curriculum. in Elizade University, there is
what we call internship programme for our students what I mean by internship is
that, as a student of Elizade University, compulsorily, you spend between one
and a half months to two months in an industry every long vacation. So we don’t
want a situation where students will go home, sit down for two months doing
nothing. We attach them to industries such that by the time they are leaving
the university; they go straight to the industries. What we are trying to achieve
here is that by the time they are attached to the industries, they gain experience,
they are exposed and by the time they graduate and get jobs to do, nothing is strange
to them anymore. That is one aspect of it. So it is not impossible that even
before some of them graduate, they would have gotten jobs because the founder of
the university himself is an industrialist, who knows where to cast his net in
order to catch a lot of fishes.
Again,
compulsorily, the National University Commission has said that every university
must introduce entrepreneurial study. So it is not a question of I've come here
to study chemistry and chemistry alone I will study. Apart from chemistry, you should
also be able to do one or two other things. For instance, all the bricks that
were used on this campus to construct most of these building were actually produced
on this campus. We have two adavom machines on this campus and each of the
machines can produce four thousand blocks in a day. We are going to introduce
skill acquisition programmes like cobbling, hairdressing e.t.c into our curriculum.
Only recently, I was discussing with one of our senior lecturers in human
resource management who is a Canadian and she said part of what she is doing
now is to give the students an assignment in the area of environmental management
and that it is going to constitute 30% of whatever they are going to do this
semester. With this, They will be able to come up with practical solution to
waste disposal or waste management on campus because we don't want to generate waste
without knowing what to do with the waste.
Adegbenro, Registrar Elizade
University
Again,
part of what we want to be noted for here in Elizade University is to be
The
cleanest university in Nigeria and how can we achieve that? It is not only the
staff that should be involve the students right from day one and that is why
the course is being introduced. So, here in Elizade University, we want to
create a total being, a total man and a total woman. It is not going to be
based on the paper qualification that you carry upon graduation; we want to see
that trait in you that you actually attended Elizade University. For instance
by the time we start mechanical engineering, of which we have already developed
the curriculum, as a student of mechanical engineering, you must compulsorily
spend at least six months in Tokyo, Japan. So when you graduate as a mechanical
engineer and you are driving and your car develops a fault on the road, you
must be able to fix it without actually calling on roadside mechanic who never went
to school to help you out. Again we are going to introduce a programme called tourism
and hospitality management. We have an 18-hole golf course here which has been
adjudged to be the best in Africa. There is no way a student of tourism and
hospitality management in Elizade University will not interface with the golf
course, and of course, there is going to be a five star hotel on the golf course.
So these are some of the things we have put in place here.
Can we know the know the number of
available courses in the university at the moment?
Thank
you, we are starting with two faculties, the faculty of basic and applied sciences
and the faculty of humanities and management sciences. In the faculty of basic and
applied sciences, we have three departments; department of mathematics and
computer science where you have mathematics as an option as well as computer
science as an option. We have the department of biological sciences where you
have biology as an option, then micro biology as in option, making six
programmers. In the faculty of humanities and management sciences, we have
three departments as well. The first one is history and language where you have
history and diplomatic studies as an option, then English language as an
option. There is the department of administration where you have human
resources management, office and information management as well as business
administration as option. Then you have department of accounting and finance
you have banking and finance as well as accounting as options. So we are
starting with two faculties and thirteen programmes.
Again, just as the proprietor said
recently that the primary motive of setting up this institution is not for
profit making per se, but for the advancement of humanity, can we know the fees
charged per student in a session?
Thank
you, here in Elizade University, if we want to charge fees that are
commensurate with what we’ve provided here in terms of facilities, we will be
charging about two million naira per student. But just because the university
is motivated by profit like the founder has always said, what we are charging
here is N700,000 per annum with world class hostel facilities and two students
in a room. Here in this university, we have spent over N350 Million on ICT and
of course you can see the structures as I had earlier spoken on the equipment
in the laboratories. Now talking about the academics and instructors, as I
speak now, we have five expatriates who are members of our faculty, two of them
from the U.K, one from South Africa, one from Hong Kong and one from Ontario,
Canada and we are paying them especially because they are expatriates in spite
of the fact that we are a university that is just taking off. Again, we also
have seven professors, not adjunct and not visiting, they are professors who
are on our pay roll. Because we want to make a difference, that is why in our
classrooms, we have interactive boards. You only can teach in those classrooms
power point presentations. And that is to tell you that power is available here
twenty-four hours. We have three 500 KVA generators and they are synchronized.
Once there is power outage from PHCN, the generators automatically switch on.
And look at our cafeteria, it is splendid and that is why our students are
quite happy. If you talk of recreation, the sporting facilities are there.
Again, even as a young university that is just taking off, in our staff
quarters, we have made provision for forty-five families’ right here on campus.
All the classrooms have air conditioners and all the laboratories also have air
conditioners. So without being immodest, you can only find these kind of facilities
in the U.K or in America.
As you have started with two
faculties, is it on yearly basis that you will be adding more or you will want
to make do with the courses you have now for sometime?
Yes.
It is on yearly basis that we will be adding faculties. But let me tell you
that in the current academic session 2013/2014, we are going to have
engineering. We are already working on that. We are going to have engineering
with emphasis on civil, electrical-electronics and mechanical. Those are the
three engineering courses we want to start with. Then, we are introducing mass
communication. We are also bringing in economics, then, tourism and hospitality
management as I mentioned earlier. These are the new programmes we are
introducing this academic session.
One of the vices in the Nigerian
educational system is the issue of cultism. What efforts are you putting in
place to discourage students from embracing cultism even right from the
formative period of this institution?
Thank
You. We just ended our orientation a few days ago with a visit to some places
of interest including Idanre hills. One of the topics we examined critically
was the issue of cultism. In fact we brought in two resource persons to talk to
the students on the dangers involved if you become a cultist. In addition to
that, we have even prepared a form for them to fill and also an affidavit which
will be sworn to in a competent court of law. If you are caught to be involved
in cultism or encourage membership, which means that not only when you are
caught as a member but also if you encourage membership, you will be shown the
way but. In fact, that is clearly spelt out in the students’ handbook which we
have made available to all the students. So when you are caught, the only
solution is expulsion, not rustication because if you are rusticated, that can
only be for one semester, at most one session. So it is outright dismissal. It
doesn’t matter ever if you are a governor’s son or daughter or even a son of
the founder of this university. A law is a law and law is not a respecter of
anybody. So we have taken that with all seriousness and thank God that all our
students will live on campus and by so doing, we have capable members of staff
with enormous experience in university administration who have
been in a way asked to look after the welfare of these kids. Even as a
registrar, I visit the hostels everyday. Once I close from office, I make sure
I visit the hostels before I go home. Then the issue of mentorship is there. Every
student of Elizade University has a mentor. And who are these mentors;? They are
the members of staff. Even as registrar, I have the phone numbers of all the students
on this campus. We want to make a difference and by the grace of God we will
make the difference.
One of the ways of attaining
excellence by modern institutions is to have synergy with successful foreign
institutions by way of collaboration. Are you having this arrangement in the
making?
Thank
you very much. We have started. As a matter of fact I was supposed to go the
United States in Nov ember 2012, but because of the admission drive I could not
go and we are now looking at the most auspicious time for me and a few other officials
of the university to go. So we are already making arrangements to have collaboration
with some universities abroad. For example two people have visited a university
in Israel on behalf of our university and they are ready for us. There are some
universities in the US like Corneal and others that are ready. As soon as the
issue of matriculation is over, we would be able to travel and formalize the arrangements
with these universities by signing memoranda of understanding with the various
universities. So that is in the offing because if we want to achieve the status
of a world class university we can not achieve that by remaining here in Nigeria
and not associating with those universities out there that have made it over
the years.
Serious research is a co-efficient
of rapid technological advancement of any nation. What is going to be your take
in this area?
In
fact any university that does not engage in research is dead and such can not be
referred to as a university. Any university exists for three reasons, teaching,
research and community service. And of course, you cannot teach effectively if
you don't do research. It is the research that will bring out new ideas and
innovations. And in any case, even for academic staff here, they must do good
research. So research is going to be taken seriously here. As a matter of fact
we are already allocating some money for research which we call research grant.
And again, for us to be known as a world class institution research must be
key. Any good enough, the vice chancellor is a well known researcher. Even when
he was in FUTA, he was able to win about $7.5 million research grant to that
university from the World Bank and today, FUTA is regarded as a centre of excellence
in food security. He made that happened and I am sure he can do more here as
the vice chancellor now. We have a crop of lecturers who are dedicated and who
are research oriented and of course, the students will have no choice than to
follow suit and before you know it, our students here in Elizade University
will be good researchers as well.
What message /advice do you have
for parents looking for good universities for their wards?
Well
my advice is that people should not rely on sending their wards to public universities
where they will not have to pay. That is the trend in Nigeria today. If you
have your ward in a public university where you don't have to pay a dime,
whether the child is taught or not, you can't challenge anybody because you are
not paying. So whether the lecturers attend classes or not there is little you
as a parent can do. But here in Elizade University for instance where student
pay, no lecturer can afford to mess up. And as a matter of fact, at the end of
each semester in Elizade University student will be made to assess their
lecturers. So when the lecturers are aware that they will be assessed by the students
at the end of the semester, they will want to sit up because no lecturer wants
to be assessed poorly by students. If as a lecturer, you have forty students in
a class and at the end of the assessment; thirty-five of them are saying you don't
teach well, the management would have to invite you for a chat and if by the
second semester the situation is still the same, then you would have to be
shown the way out because you are paid for a purpose, to deliver to those
students and if you are not delivering, why do we have to keep you here? So
these are things parents should know. When you invest in your child's education
you are only investing in your future. You are doing yourself a lot of good by
investing in the future. For instance, if a child graduates from Elizade
University with the kind of facilities here, then of course that child is going
to be different from a child that graduated from a nearby public university
where cultism is the order of the day. And part of the root causes of cultism
in most public universities today is because they cannot accommodate more than
15% of the students on campus, 85o/o are outside there and so you cannot
control their movement. So that is the difference.
