Funmi Ogundare
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, has referred to as on African universities to overhaul their instructing strategies and curricula to put together graduates for a quickly altering world formed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and rising societal challenges.
She acknowledged that greater schooling establishments should transfer past conventional instructing and examination strategies to prioritise important pondering, creativity, moral judgment, problem-solving and sensible utility of information.
She stated this in her keynote tackle on the International Week of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), themed, ‘Re-imagining Pedagogy and Teaching for Higher Education in the 21st Century’.
Amfo argued that universities should rethink their goal and the capabilities they search to develop in college students, moderately than focusing totally on using expertise in instructing.
According to her, the fast development of AI, local weather change, public well being threats, migration, demographic shifts and geopolitical uncertainties are remodeling skilled fields quicker than universities can replace their curricula.
She famous that African universities face the extra problem of responding to these modifications whereas addressing longstanding growth issues, widening entry to schooling and managing restricted sources.
“Before asking how we should teach, we should ask, what is higher education for in the 21st century? What should it enable our graduates to become? And what responsibilities do universities have to the societies that sustain them?” she requested.
The VC acknowledged that college schooling remained an necessary pathway to skilled employment, social mobility and mental growth, notably in African societies the place households typically make important sacrifices to educate their kids.
While stressing that employability remained necessary, the VC maintained that universities should additionally domesticate mental independence, adaptability, cultural understanding and a dedication to the general public good.
She stated graduates ought to have the option to interrogate data, examine issues, develop options, work with folks of numerous views and proceed studying past formal schooling.
“For African universities, there is an additional responsibility. Our institutions must help produce the knowledge, leadership, and capabilities needed to address the continent’s challenges, from health systems and food security to environmental sustainability, inequality, democratic governance, and technological inclusion,” she careworn.
In her remarks, UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, referred to as on universities to rethink conventional instructing strategies and embrace modern, technology-driven approaches that may equip college students with the talents required to thrive in a quickly altering world.
Ogunsola who declared open the college’s International Week, stated greater establishments should transfer past standard lectures and rote studying to instructing strategies that promote important pondering, creativity, innovation, problem-solving and flexibility.
She stated the rising affect of AI and different rising applied sciences had basically modified the upper schooling panorama, requiring universities to rethink how they educate, assess and certify college students.
According to her, the query is not whether or not college students have entry to AI instruments, however how establishments can be sure that studying stays significant and prepares graduates for the calls for of the office.
“Our students have access to information on the internet and AI tools that can summarise, calculate, translate and even draft essays in seconds. The question therefore is no longer whether these tools exist, but what it now means to teach, assess and certify learning in their presence,” she stated.
Ogunsola famous that employers had been more and more looking for graduates with competencies past the flexibility to recall details and figures, together with AI and machine studying literacy, analytical and significant pondering, problem-solving, adaptability, efficient communication, emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation.
Also in her remarks, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Nigeria, Ms Elsie Gyekyewaa Attafuah, urged Nigerian universities to reform their pupil evaluation techniques, college promotion standards and analysis funding mechanisms to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and sensible options to nationwide challenges.
She acknowledged that universities should align their institutional incentives with the calls for of the longer term to be sure that investments in infrastructure translate into significant innovation and growth.
She careworn the necessity for establishments to reward modern pondering, interdisciplinary collaboration and analysis that demonstrates public worth, warning that with out deliberate modifications to present educational buildings, universities danger investing in new services whereas persevering with to reward standard approaches that won’t adequately promote innovation.
“There is a risk of placing new facilities within systems that continue to reward the same old ways of working,” she acknowledged.
To illustrate how universities might encourage innovation, Attafuah cited University College London, which recognises enterprise and exterior engagement in its educational profession frameworks, and the University of Cambridge, the place inventors and their departments share income generated from analysis licensing.
She charged Nigerian universities to think about related approaches by giving higher recognition to innovation, interdisciplinary analysis and initiatives that translate educational discoveries into sensible advantages for society.
She additionally advocated the supply of small, accessible grants to allow college students and college members to experiment, take a look at concepts and enhance their options.
According to her, “universities should explore ways to support innovation hubs and other platforms where ideas developed through original research could be tested and refined.”
She added that rigorous testing and a transparent contribution to data ought to stay central to educational analysis, together with doctoral research.
“The opportunity is to align our incentives with the future. We want our universities to create while upholding academic rigour,” she acknowledged.
