Engineers, technologists, technicians, and related stakeholders came together last week under the auspices of The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria. It was COREN’s 25th annual conference, held from Monday, August 8, through Wednesday, August 10, 2016, at the International Culture and Event Centre, otherwise known as the DOME, in Akure, Ondo State. Themed, “Embracing the Future: Improving the Quality of Engineering Education and Practice in Nigeria”, the conference focused on the drawbacks of engineering education and practice in Nigeria and suggested possible remedies.
Within the three days, several stimulating papers were presented, which examined the problems with engineering education and practice in relation to various topics, ranging from youth unemployment and Small and Medium Enterprises to water, gas, and electricity supply shortages. This brief commentary focuses on the problems identified with engineering education, especially in the universities and polytechnics. Particular attention is given to what COREN can do to improve engineering education in these institutions, using my dinner address to the COREN Assembly as the point of reference.
A cross-section of the papers given at the conference indicates that engineering education in Nigeria today suffers from four major shortcomings. First, the literature on engineering education research is replete with complaints about inadequate curriculum for engineering education in the universities and polytechnics. The need to domesticate the curriculum is often emphasised in order to ensure that the students can adapt what they learn to the vagaries of the Nigerian environment. It is also necessary to highlight necessary skills and competencies that students must acquire in specific areas of engineering. Moreover, curriculum revisions must be carried out periodically to accommodate new techniques and equipment in the field of engineering that the students must know about if they are to be successful in today’s job market.
Second, teaching laboratories and facilities are often obsolete, substandard, or inadequate. The few engineering departments with moderately up-to-date facilities lack basic infrastructure, especially power and water supply, to make them work. As a result, lecturers rely mainly on the lecture method, ignoring other necessary pedagogical techniques, including demonstrations, workshops, experiential learning, and learning cooperatives. Ultimately, students are not exposed to the equipment and engineering practices they may encounter in the industry after their graduation. No wonder many employers of engineering graduates repeatedly complain of the poor quality of the graduates. It also explains why many industries prefer to hire foreign trained engineering graduates, thus worsening the youth unemployment statistics of homegrown engineering graduates.
Third, many university and polytechnic lecturers are inadequately prepared for the job, as many of them were either poorly trained themselves or have not attained optimal training. For example, it is estimated that most engineering faculties or departments, especially in the state and private universities, are staffed predominantly by junior lecturers. This is especially true of the polytechnics, where there is a dearth of Ph.D. holders or lecturers with relevant practical experience. As a result, they lack the ability to diversify their instructional methods in line with the demands of the job market.
Fourth, true, engineering faculties and departments have mushroomed all over the place, most, if not all, of them are poorly funded as are many other programmes in the universities and polytechnics. Indeed, underfunding is often blamed for most other inadequacies. This is evident in the deplorable state of infrastructure (roads, buildings, power and water supply, libraries, computer labs, and so on) on university and polytechnic campuses throughout the country.
Engineering, of course, is only one of the components of STEM education (that is, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), in which developed and fast growing economies are investing heavily in order to develop adequate manpower for their job markets. Yet, more lip service has been paid to this quartet of knowledge in Nigeria than to actual investment in its education. The interrelationships among these areas of knowledge make investment in them mandatory, if significant improvements in engineering education were to occur.
It must be recognised, however, that necessary improvements cannot be achieved merely by throwing money at the problems. A gradual systemic change in engineering education is necessary, and COREN could lead the way. One, since COREN members know what obtains in the engineering job market in Nigeria, they should work closely with the Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission, and various engineering faculties in the universities and the polytechnics in order to influence the direction and quality of engineering education in these institutions, especially in curriculum design. This should be an easy task to accomplish since many engineering professors and lecturers are also members of COREN.
Two, non-teaching, but practising, COREN members could directly augment student training in one of two ways. On the one hand, they could volunteer their services as guest lecturers or workshop facilitators for engineering students in their field in any tertiary institution near their construction sites, workshops, or offices anywhere in the country. This will allow professional engineers to upgrade the students’ knowledge with current engineering techniques, equipment, and practices.
On the other hand, university and polytechnic lecturers could be invited to construction sites to refresh their memories about how the theories they learnt and continue to teach their students are put to practical use.
Moreover, COREN should consider holding their annual conferences within university and polytechnic campuses, where engineers are actually trained. It is not enough to share ideas among yourselves. Budding engineers and their teachers could also learn from such professional conferences. Besides, it will be a source of inspiration for the students to rub shoulders with professionals in the course of such conferences.
COREN should take the lead in facilitating linkages between industries and construction sites, on the one hand, and engineering training institutions, on the other hand. In particular, COREN should double up on facilitating internships for students in their various companies, organisations, and work sites. It is necessary to ensure that internships are properly organised as experiential learning and a stepping stone to the job market, rather than a mere degree requirement.
Third, COREN members should embrace the philanthropic spirit of donating to their alma mater, and target such donations at specific purposes that could improve engineering education. Many American universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, where I earned my doctorate, the Colleges of Engineering grew, expanded, and continue to expand, from donations, especially by other engineers, particularly the alumni.
While focusing on the mainstream education of university and polytechnic students, COREN should also worry about artisans of various categories, who are often overlooked in capacity building projects. They include bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders, tilers, and POP technicians, whose work is critical to engineering practice at construction sites. Artisans are often poorly educated, lack appropriate equipment and technical know-how, and lack finesse. Some of them are locked into certain ways of doing things that could negatively impact overall quality, if not corrected through systematic training. There is no doubt that the overall quality of engineering practice will be significantly improved in this country, if retraining programmes were institutionalised for this category of workers.
The current deplorable state of engineering education in Nigeria is symptomatic of the state of education in the country as a whole. Given hiccups with the mere management of university entrance examinations, it is unclear what the present administration has in store for university and polytechnic education. Whatever its higher education policy may be, the earlier it was rolled out, the better for the universities and polytechnics. In the meantime, it is incumbent on various professional organisations to look after their potential “offspring” by reaching out to these institutions.
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