Committee of Provosts and Deans of Postgraduate Colleges and Schools in Nigerian Universities (CPDPGCS) have suggested that Postgraduate studies should be more productive than being made a mere tool for Degree acquisition in Nigeria.
They advocated restructuring of the curriculum of postgraduate studies to promote critical and innovative thinking “rather than being a mere tool for degree acquisition.”
In a communique yesterday, November 7 after its 60th meeting at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, the academics called on TETFund to institute innovation fund in addition to the various research grants on ground.
“This should be available to take research through the development to application/commercialization stage to complete the R-D-A trajectory.”
The communique said that the existing curriculum could engender training of researchers who are competent to solve societal needs, as envisaged by the global sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The CPDPGCS urged universities to adopt problem solving instruction models in postgraduate training to encourage information analysis by students and help them form their own perspectives.
It also harped on allowing students to determine their own research topics rather than their supervisors to stir their creativity.
“CPDPGCS frowns at the increasing wave of knowledge theft in the ivory towers. University authorities should curb the menace with measures such as activation of plagiarism checker, and quality assurance mechanism, among others.
“Universities should ensure that postgraduate research reports (theses) are uploaded online (into the University repository) to reduce or curb the incidences of plagiarism.
“For the assurance of the quality of postgraduate research, every university should have a quality assurance operational manual apart from the postgraduate manual. It is thus imperative they have research management Office,” it said.
It advocated the strengthening of the supervision committee system for postgraduate students especially PhD students, emphasising strict adherence to NUC recommended carrying capacity for students’ supervision.
According to it, professional fellowships are needed to enhance professional efficiency while PhD is needed for lecturing in the university.
“The fellowship of any profession is a professional qualification and not a university academic degree.
“Therefore, medical doctors in academics should still be encouraged to take a PhD for their academic career progression. No university should equate a professional fellowship with a PhD.”
