“We have failed our students” – UG Vice Chancellor

Mar 13, 2014 News

— introduces Committee to hear students’ concerns bi-semesterly

Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Jacob Opadeyi, yesterday conceded that “we have failed our students,” even as he commented on the concerns recently raised by third year Education students about “unannounced changes” to the Bachelors of Education (B.Ed) programme.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi

In fact the changes had prompted protest action among the students who disclosed that they were faced with increased tuition fees and repetition of courses.
During their protest action last week Monday, the students disclosed that no attempt was made by officials of the University to apprise them of the changes to the programme which they commenced in September of last year.
By October, the changes were brought to their attention following which they voiced their concerns, even inking a letter to the Vice Chancellor. The students claimed that although the Vice Chancellor had promised to investigate and provide them with feedback, the New Year arrived without any such development.
Professor Opadeyi, during an interview with this publication yesterday, admitted that “the whole scenario is because of our not being able to have dialogue with the students…when you are going to change your programme you are supposed to sit down with the students and discuss it with them…and we failed to do that in this particular case.”
Reports are that the concerns faced by the students was rooted in moves by the Ministry of Education, through the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Project (GITEP), to put measures in place to reduce the period of qualification for teachers. The programme saw the revision of the Associate Degree in Education (ADE) at the Cyril Potter College of Education and the B.Ed programme as well.
But Project Coordinator of GITEP, Tota Mangar, in an invited comment told this publication that he had no idea that there were internal issues at the University with regards to the B.Ed programme.
A meeting to address the concerns of the students was on Monday afternoon held between the Vice Chancellor; Dean of the School of Education and Humanities, Alim Hosein and Heads of Department, along with the affected the students.
The meeting was planned in response to the students’ move to highlight their concerns. And according to the Vice Chancellor, “I felt good that the students resorted to protest action…because we have not been very responsive quickly enough to satisfy the students.”
The meeting, on Monday, he disclosed, was rather fruitful as it not only went well but “we are getting closer to a solution.”
“We were able to discuss the tuition fee increase with them…we were able to give them an explanation of why they have to pay the fees and they understand it now,” said Professor Opadeyi, who disclosed that over 100 students are affected by the changes to the programme.
This publication was informed that the staff/students dialogue is slated to continue today at which time Professor Opadeyi said, “I am going to apologise to the students on behalf of the University and let them know that what happened would not happen again.”
And there are plans in place to ensure that failure to respond to students’ concerns at the University becomes a thing of the past.
With the strategic introduction of a Staff/Students Liaison Committee, the brainchild of Professor Opadeyi, it is now mandated that staff meet with students at least twice per semester, particularly at the beginning and towards the end, to discuss students’ concerns. The membership of the Committee, according to the Vice Chancellor, is designed to ideally have four students, one for each semester, and two or three staff members. “It is an opportunity for students to share their complaints and raise issues and for the Departments to deal with them,” Professor Opadeyi explained yesterday.
He disclosed too that it is expected that the minutes of each meeting will be recorded and sent to him, even as he pointed out that in the case where the Head of Department cannot resolve the issue at hand, it is then referred to the Dean. And should the Dean be incapable of addressing that issue it must then be forwarded to the Vice Chancellor himself to be addressed.
Professor Opadeyi asserted though that “it is important that each Department keep the minutes of the meetings so that we can see what the issues are that they (students) have been complaining about for two, three years and if it is not resolved then the University will be found wanting.”