Nasir Shuaibu The authorities of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi have reiterated that necessary arrangements have been put in place to improve the academic and research performance of the institution. This pledge was coming on the heels of the recent abysmal performance of the university in the National Universities Commission (NUC) ranking, which they attributed to lack of sighting of research work, non-uploading of research work on Google scholar and lack of collaboration, among others.
The university’s Director of Research, Innovation and Development, Prof. Fatima Sawa restated the commitment of the institution to change the narrative, while speaking during a Step-Down Workshop on Grants Winning Proposal Writing of the university, held at the Gubi permanent campus of the institution. “As you are all aware, the ranking of the universities are out, and you could see that ATBU performed abysmally,” she said, adding: “Some of the things that affected us are factors that we considered as not very important.
For instance, we do not cite our research work, as we prefer to cite research work from outside; we do not upload our research work on Google Scholar, and so we are not visible as a university.” Prof. Sawa, however, noted “we also do not have collaboration; we do not have international students and international lecturers, while our student to staff ratio performance is high.
These are some of the criteria that were used and we are having issues with them.” Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mohammed Ahmad Abdulazeez, while declaring the workshop open, said that no nation could progress without investing in research and development activities. Abdulazeez, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Ibrahim Garba, noted that for innovation to take place, massive investment in research and development needed to be carried out.
“Unless you invest massively in R and D, there is no way you can innovate, and therefore you will lose out on the benefit of this particular century that is driven by knowledge,” he said. The Vice-Chancellor also said that it was against this background that the management of the university became concerned particularly with regard to its performance in the 2020 NRF exercise.
“Except if we are living in the past glory, that particular performance is something that should make everyone worry, and factor in the recent ranking of Nigerian universities by NUC even though the methodology is beginning to be contested by quite a number of universities, including us, but it still does not mean that we are last in the ranking, that is also a call for concern,” he added.
