Vice Chancellor appeals for normalcy at UG

Feb 18, 2015 News

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– highlights need for Govt. support

“It is a pity that the current industrial impasse is being used to point fingers,” said Vice Chancellor of the

University of Guyana, Professor Jacob Opadeyi in a statement issued to the media.  The Vice Chancellor, who has had little to nothing to say to the media of recent on ongoing industrial action at the University of Guyana (UG), yesterday disseminated a lengthy statement in which he shared some of his convictions.
Among these was his belief that “No one entity should be blamed for the current state of UG, but the national community as a whole, who have sat back and allowed this noble university to suffer from decades of neglect, abandonment, and political grandstanding”.
The Vice Chancellor went on to share his firm belief that the problem at UG is not merely one of decades of underfunding and poor management, but chiefly, the lack of a national policy on how to fund the University.  And in the absence of this policy, he has concluded that “the funding regimes are haphazard and arbitrary”.
“In the absence of such a national policy, accountability, transparency, and due diligence can hardly be demanded. Strategic plans, development goals, monitoring and evaluation and score cards will be foreign words to Council and Administration. I ask, when last was the management of UG called before the parliament to account for its revenue and expenditure? Who dares to ask UG to do such a thing when its income cannot meet its expenditure, when its budgets are unrealistic, when there is no financial discipline?” the Vice Chancellor asked.
It is his hope that the national community will support the call for the development of a national policy on how to fund the university with the required accountability, rules and regulations. “This is the root cause of UG’s problem,” Professor Opadeyi insisted.
He pointed out that the University today is in a “catch 22 position” characterized by a low level of tuition fees, low level of subvention grants, low level of private sector investment coupled with inadequate facilities and inadequate service delivery.
In making his daunting point of the state of the local tertiary institution, the Vice Chancellor alluded to the Chinese adage, “cheap things no good, good things no cheap”.

NEED FOR FUNDS
Reflecting on his entry to the tertiary institution over a year ago, the Nigeria-born Vice Chancellor said that it was a mere two weeks after taking up his appointment here that he realized the enormous task of transforming the University back to its days of glory.
And those glory days, he intimated, were the ones that saw UG producing global and regional scholars, business leaders, entrepreneurs, engineers and teachers who have contributed not only to the development of Guyana but to the world at large.
Moreover, he noted that the need for transformation is dictated by the inadequate state of the University’s infrastructure including drainage, sewerage, buildings, laboratories, furniture and other facilities.
“This need is also dictated by the university’s over 30-year-old system of governance, policies, examination and admission regulations, added to the fact that its staff and student welfare services lack modern day requirements,” added the Vice Chancellor, who noted that “the level of funding and the management of the available funds leave much to be desired.”
“We should commend the staff and students who endure this less than desirable state of affairs: the low level of staff remunerations and the unacceptable state of office facilities and teaching materials.”
As such, he amplified that the injection of large sums of money into UG is without question imperative. This need, according to him, will go towards the upgrading of infrastructure and construction of new and modern facilities and money to improve salaries and benefits.
“This new money should come with demands for improvement in quality of service and quality of products. This new money will encourage the recruitment and retention of more qualified and student-centered staff both within Guyana and further afield,” the Vice Chancellor posited.
But according to him, “the Council and Administration, understanding of these challenges, have led us to initiate a number of actions that are bearing the desired result.”
“These actions include: Special audits that identified the sources of financial mismanagement; Appointment of a new Bursar; Chief Accountant, and Accountants that are working to significantly improve our financial system; decision to purchase a new accounting and human resources management software to replace the over 20-year-old software currently being used.”
“Also an increase of retirement age of our lecturers from 60 to 65 years to retain our very best who are still eager and young enough to be of service to our students; upgrading the terms of employment of our maid cleaners; financial and system audits of our units that are running at a loss; audit of teaching loads in order to ensure that contractual obligations are met.”
“Government investment of US$10 million to upgrade facilities of the Science and Technology Faculties; institutionalization of research grants to improve research outputs; institutionalization of facilities fee to support the upgrading of our teaching and learning resources; minimal adjustment of tuition fee to decrease the level of deficit and introduction of online degree programs to increase access to University Education.”
“We have done all of these with the financial commitment of the Government,” said Professor Opadeyi who nevertheless deemed these “baby steps.”
“We have made some gains, but the road ahead is still far and rough,” said the Vice Chancellor, as he outlined other areas ranging from accreditation of all professional programmes to the increasing of enrolment even from out-of-region and foreign students.

EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIAL ACTION
But according to Professor Opadeyi, ambitious plans for the University cannot be realized in the face of protracted salary and wage negotiations. In fact he asserted that “We cannot afford to have staff who have low morale because of inadequate remunerations. We cannot afford to keep our students out of classes – they have paid an increased fee for that matter,” he added.
According to the Vice Chancellor, “my support for improvement in salaries and benefits comes with improvement in efficiency and accountability. This support, however, comes with the understanding of the issue of how this increase can be funded without reverting to the days of huge deficit.”
He has therefore proffered a number of direct and indirect investments. Among his proposals are “an increase in government subvention by 25 per cent in the first instance; reduction of part-time expenditure and ensuring that our lecturers meet their contractual teaching obligations; scholarships for 1000 students in the areas of Science and Technology; revision of UG electricity rate – we are neither an industry nor a commercial institution”.
Also, “provision of duty-free concession to all lecturers with a minimum of Masters Degree and after 3 years of satisfactory service to the University; provision of land and housing loans at a special low interest rate to all staff after 3 years of quality service; recovery of student loans that are in default to fund University capital works; transfer of the student loan scheme to private sector as a revolving loan; cyclic offering of programs that are a drain to our resources; direct duty and VAT exemptions for University acquisitions and periodic maintenance of our roads, drains and grounds by the Ministry of Public Works”.
“If our lecturers are expected to give quality instructions, publish quality papers in international journals, provide quality services to the University and National communities provide quality input in local, regional and international debates, they deserve quality salaries and wages,” Professor Opadeyi stated.
He insisted that “in investing in staff, we will have to hold them accountable through biannual student assessment, annual quality and productivity assessment and peer review.”
And according to the Vice Chancellor, “for the sake of our students I humbly request a return to normalcy, negotiation in good faith, and respect for each other.”
“Respect for our paying students, respect for our hard working students, respect for the staff, respect for the Council who has supported this administration, and respect for the governments’ financial regime. Let’s work together to build a better University,” Professor Opadeyi appealed.

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