Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), says good practices by lecturers is a panacea for achieving academic excellence in universities across the country.
Okebukola made the assertion on Thursday at the workshop for senior lecturers of Lagos State University (LASU), on revamping academic culture toward achieving academic excellence in the institution.
He encouraged all academic staff of LASU to adopt the provisions of effective teaching, partnership and good practices among others.
“Lecturers in LASU should collaborate internally and externally among themselves in order to boost researches in the institution because LASU has about the best teachers in Nigeria’s university system.
“University teaching is different from secondary school teaching. According to survey, good practices in university teaching are reviewing previous lecture, present current and summarise the lesson.
“Others includes: relating topic to sociocultural context, promptness to class, self evaluating his/her lesson, dressing well, using technology to support teaching and good communication skills,” he said.
According to Okebukola, there are some antagonistic forces to good quality teaching which include indolent students and poorly resourced classrooms.
“Others are; poor welfare scheme and fairly long distances to travel from home to the university.
“Some bad practices in university teaching are spending more than half of the time on non-lesson related discussion, intimidating students, and lateness to class or not at all.
“Failure to cover the course syllabus, poor dressing to class, poor use of technology and variety of teaching approaches and poor feedback to students,” he said.
Prof. Michael Faborode, former Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, also urged universities to exploit technology to the limit to transform their institutions, methods of teaching, learning and governance.
“ICT is the fulcrum on which the various elements of the blueprint for revitalisation rest, hence universities must be ready to deploy for effective teaching.
“By 2023, scholars in Nigerian universities should be among the top three in productivity as measured by national and global productivity standards to solve socioeconomic challenges.
“Every nation needs their university sectors to apply and produce knowledgeable well skilled workers across the skills spectrum in order to be competitive in the global economy.
“Universities must therefore be well funded and accorded needed recognition and in return to respond to crucial need that determines their local relevance and social value,” he said.