Mixed feelings over FCE Kano’s varsity status

Federal College of Education (FCE) Kano

When the news first broke out that the Federal College of Education (FCE) Kano had been upgraded to a university alongside three other colleges in the country, there was a mixture of excitement and fears.
Although the FCE Kano has been awarding degrees to its students for many years in affiliation with other established universities including Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, it was obvious that the news of its conversion to a university had taken its management, staff and students by a jolting surprise.
On June 4, 2015 an urgent meeting was convened by the academic staff union of the institution to welcome a new Vice Chancellor, Professor Victor Awonusi Segun, who had been posted to preside over the transition from a college to a university.

Before the appointment of the new vice chancellor, the Provost of the institution was Dr. Rabi Jibrilla, who later became the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the university. In his remarks, Professor Segun noted that the conversion of the affected federal colleges of education to full-pledged universities would come with immense benefits but it would also herald a new set of challenges, which, he said must be managed carefully in order to succeed.
He said the key difference between colleges of education and universities is that while colleges are expected to focus and devote their resources entirely to teaching, universities focus principally on research and production of publications.
 Also, in a joint letter of appreciation sent to the immediate past minister of education Ibrahim Shekarau over the varsity upgrade, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), noted that the following issues must be addressed in order to make the transition successful.
One, all “chief lecturers” who have acquired PhDs in the system should automatically be graded as professors while those that do not have relevant degrees must be given a grace period of three years to get the qualifications in order to fit into the university scheme of service.
“Two, the lecturers also demand the immediate release of enabling documents to the appropriate statutory bodies so as to make the transition process legal, and argued that existing personnel should be upgraded to match newly introduced positions and vacancies.
“We consider it inappropriate for the existing personnel to be unnecessarily subordinated and marginalized by newly recruited staff on the pretext of having university experience,” the letter read, adding that academic staff should not be allowed to suffer financially on account of the new development.
Similarly, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of FCE Kano, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq Haruna, once told journalists that the institution was waiting for an enabling legislation by the National Assembly that will legally recognize it as a university.
“But before then, from what we heard from the Vice Chancellor, admissions will commence from the next academic session at that time because making a law in Nigeria is a serious process and all other universities had followed this process,” he had said.
He said the institution has all it takes to acquire the status of a university because it has “highly professional” academics that have produced a lot of publications, adding that the new university would produce home-based professors in a short period of time.
However, few weeks after, the federal government reverted the upgrade of the institution alongside three others in Zaria, Owerri and Ondo to their former status of Federal Colleges of Education (FCE). The decision was contained in a letter to the provost of the institution Dr. Rabi Jibirilla Muhammad, dated 19th August, 2015 and signed by the acting permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. H U. Abdullahi.
According to the provost, she was called to Abuja and issued with a letter directing her to take over the affairs of the intuition as a provost.
“I was invited to Abuja by the Federal Ministry of Education and given a letter indicating the reversal of the university to Federal College of Education. I was also directed in the letter to take over the affairs of the college as a provost,” she said.
Daily Trust observed that the development has caused confusion at the institution as staff and students were divided along ‘pro’ and ‘against’ groups. The academic staff of the institution under the auspice of Academic Staff Union of the reverted universities (ASUU) embarked on a one-week warning strike in protest against the sudden reversal of the upgrade. Chairman of the union, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq Haruna, who chaired a special congress, announced the decision of the lecturers.
Haruna said the strike was necessary in order to avoid conflict among academic and non-academic staff of the institution, saying President Muhammadu Buhari was misled about the issue and that the processes followed to reverse the upgrading were not in line with civil service and university rules.
He suggested that a national debate should be organized on the matter so that opinions of the host community and other stakeholders in the education sector could be heard.
However, few minutes into the briefing, a group of students and some administrative personnel of the institution led by one Muhammadu Buhari, who claimed to be an admission officer of the institution, disrupted the briefing.
The crowd chanted “no to university; we want the institution to be reversed to FCE” and “we will fight for our children’s right.”
Buhari, who led the anti-upgrade protest, said they didn’t want the institution to be upgraded to university because many people may lose their jobs, adding that “many students especially those with three credits at O level will not be admitted by the university.”
Abdulkarim Hussaini Abdulkarim, a principal assistant lecturer in the institution was in support of the upgrade. He said: “The upgrade is an advantage to the staff, students and the community at large. Nigerians should think beyond NCE.
“We have reached a stage where you can find a young man of 30 years having PhD certificate because has passed through the university but if you go for diploma or NCE you will spend more years before you can obtain a PhD.”
Abdulkarim added that academic personnel of the institution have the potentials to move up to professorship level if were given the chance but if the institution remains as FCE they can only stop at associate professors, lamenting that “that is why many lecturers moved to the newly established universities for greener posture.”
“For the interest of the college and the community I think the upgrade of the college to university status is a welcome idea,” he concluded.
A student, Abubakar Muhammad, said the upgrade is well deserved.
Another student, Usman A Musa, said those who didn’t like the institution to be upgraded were enemies of progress, adding,“If upgraded to university, the institution will bring lots of development not only to the host community but to the entire nation.”
But Ibrahim Sale, an NCE one student has a contrary opinion. He said he was not in support of the upgrade, saying, “I was told by one of the non-academic staff that when the college is upgraded to university, all the NCE students will be dismissed from the college because we don’t have requirements to study degree programmes.”