Prof. Tanko Ishaya, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos, has advised Nigerian universities to conduct quality and innovative research to attract more funds that will enable them function effectively..
Ishaya gave the advice at the a training workshop on Research Administration and Management organised for staff members of the institution in Jos.
He maintained that with the dwindling funds accruing to universities in the country from the FederalGovernment, there was need for more researches to be conducted to have additional funds that would take care of their running costs.
”With the dwindling funds coming to the universities, we must as teachers and managers of universities, think out of the box and find ways to survive and keep moving.
”One of the ways to do that is by conducting research because it is a critical way of attracting grants to the institutions to survive.
”So, if universities want to survive, we must begin to conduct innovative and quality research so that we can attract funds to make them operate effectively,” he said.
Ishaya, however, said that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) remained a major set back toward the smooth conduct of research in most universities because universities hardly get access to research funds.
He called on the Federal Government to review the policy, and allow universities to keep research funds in commercial banks for easy access.
”The TSA policy where we keep research funds in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is unfriendly because universities hardly access dollars from it and when they do, CBN gives them at official rates.
”Unfortunately, when we want to acquire items for the research, we don’t get them at official rates,” he said.
The vice-chancellor, who advised the staff of the University of Jos to conduct inpactful research, promised to support any research that would attract funds to the university.
Earlier, Prof. Musa Gaya, the Director, Office Research and Development of the institution, said that the training, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was organised under the Northwestern Unijos Mentored Programme for Enhanced Research Administration (NUMPERA).
Gaya added that the two-day exercise would equip participants with the requisite knowledge that would enable them develop fundable proposals for the university.
