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Vice Chancellor advocates for National Research Council at UG
Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, is advocating for a National Research Council at the tertiary institution. His disclosure in this regard was forthcoming recently, even as he anticipated the successful completion of research projects that are set to be completed by some 21 academics over the next 18 months.
The academics, divided into eight working groups, were together awarded US$329,000 to complete a number of investigative projects under the University of Guyana Science and Technology Support Project (UGSTSP) which is based on a US$10 million loan from the World Bank to the Government.
UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi
According to Professor Opadeyi, “we are going to make a proposal to the Government to have a National Research Council that gives money for this type of research, so that at the end of the World Bank project the country will still have a research council that can replicate this process that we are doing here.”
Moreover, the Vice Chancellor amplified the importance of accountability during the research projects.
Ensuring accountability during the projects, he noted, will include the presenting of receipts, securing of necessary approvals, and genuine efforts to adhere to recommended processes. “And I tell you, the process is more important than the results, because we are not going to do the research by any means possible but by the processes that the World Bank and everybody is comfortable with,” Professor Opadeyi asserted.
“When they (World Bank) come back and check our books, they will say ‘yes this was what was done,’” said the Vice Chancellor, even as he appealed for the full support of the academics in realising this goal.
And in order to ensure that only the academics with the best proposals were selected for the recently awarded financial grant, Professor Opadeyi disclosed that a great deal of evaluation was done.
“It is a very challenging moment, but when you are doing something and what you are doing is not painful, be careful, because ‘no pain, no gain’,” he underscored.
According to the Vice Chancellor, one of the hallmarks of a good academic is when he or she can survive and move to higher heights after a peer review.
“When somebody can say Jacob that thing you are saying is not correct, show me proof of it; where is the evidence of it? If they have no evidence, forget it! You can’t say I am the Vice Chancellor. No, you have to provide the evidence,” he insisted.
Of the total number of academics who submitted proposals for research projects, Professor Opadeyi said that several could not provide supporting evidence and therefore “we knocked them off”.
“Several persons got angry because they got bad reviews,” he disclosed, while pointing out that “the fact of the matter is that we had very good research proposals but something was lacking, and we said to them, ‘supply what is lacking’. We sat down with some of the persons and we said ‘okay this is what the reviewers said…’”
The reviewers were made up of persons from both in and outside of Guyana, with at least three persons evaluating each submitted proposal. And according to the Vice Chancellor, the academics required a minimum benchmark of 65 per cent and three ‘yeses’ (approvals) from reviewers in order to become eligible for the research grant.
“I would bet you that what the eight of you have done is raise the bar for others, because next time it will be 75 (per cent) and that is where the quality comes in…Because if you cannot even write a proposal that can convince somebody, how can you do a research that can convince anybody?” questioned the Vice Chancellor.
And in order to ensure that academics improve in not only the art of proposal crafting but also providing supporting evidence, Professor Opadeyi disclosed that, “We are not going to leave you alone. We are going to be having workshops on how to write proposals and hold each other’s hands as we go along the way.”
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