Indeed, the new School of Business
offers opportunities in academic and
professional Masters of Business
Administrations for both full-time
and part-time MBA candidates. It
also offers short-term certificate
courses as well as specific courses
that meet special needs within the
private and public sectors.
University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria’s Premier
University is thinking out of the box. The 65-
year old institution is becoming more creative
in order to effectively blend with the current
trend in this knowledge driven global
economy. In being creative, the university is
beginning to take a second look at most of its
courses that have been in existence since
1948 when the university was established in
relation with the modern demands.
It was George Kneller, author of Existentialism
and Education who noted that “creativity
consists largely of rearranging what we know in
order to find out what we do not know. Hence,
to think creatively, we must be able to look
afresh at what we normally take for granted”.
This is exactly the scenario in UI. Many things
that had hitherto been taken for granted are
now receiving serious intellectual interrogation
with a view to conforming to the contemporary
needs.
The recently created and inaugurated
University of Ibadan School of Business (UISB),
where regular and contemporary, short-time
courses, customized workshops, consultancy
and research for various organizations and
companies will be in the offering is one of the
fall outs of a new vision. It is on record that UI
is reputed for teaching only Economics in the
area of business and commercial studies even
when younger universities are offering
Accountancy, Banking and Finance, Business
Administration among others. Many candidates
who would have loved to have their First
Degree in UI have gone to other universities
simply because their preferred courses of study
are not available in the University of their First
Choice (UI)
However, with the new UISB, headed by a first
class Professor of Economics, Prof. Ademola
Ariyo who is the Board Chairman, and the First
Female Professor of Computer Science/
Economics in Africa, Prof. Adenike Osofisan as
the Director, a paradigm shift that will provide
and build leadership for current business
challenges has berthed in Ibadan. The
philosophy of the UISB is to provide an
education that will satisfy today’s public and
private economic requirements. It offers a
platform for post-experience learning, as well
as exposure to the use of basic economic,
management, and technical tools intertwined
with case studies. The teaching and learning
process will according to the mandate, be
delivered in the open, distant and blended
modes. This is with a view to ensuring that
learning is nurtured in a flexible and versatile
manner. The real life intervention by students
will be encouraged to develop problem solving
capacities and capabilities.
Indeed, the new School of Business offers
opportunities in academic and professional
Masters of Business Administrations for both
full-time and part-time MBA candidates. It also
offers short-term certificate courses as well as
specific courses that meet special needs within
the private and public sectors. The school
therefore intends to collaborate with both
private and public sectors of the African
economy to solve both management and
leadership problems.
Since what one earns, in today’s knowledge
based economy, depends largely on what one
learns, the UISB has also determined to run
short term programmes targeted at corporate
and working professionals to upgrade
knowledge and professional skills in order to
avoid obsolescence in this highly dynamic
technological world. Certainly, every activity of
the school will be information technology
driven.
Of course, before getting to this stage, the
university, being meticulous as it is, had sent
members of the school implementation
committee to five selected Business schools in
the United Kingdom and the United States of
America for a study tour. The committee
visited London Business School, Columbia
Business School, New York and Kellogg
Business School, North-Western University,
Chicago. They also visited Howard University
Business School and University of Central
Florida, Orlando, USA.
The intention was to ensure that the best
global practices in Business education are
made available in Nigeria. Besides, as they say,
“knowledge is a mimic creation, not even when
Thomas Edison has counseled that there is
always a way to do it better if only one can find
it. The University of Ibadan has seemingly
found a way of running a school of Business
with the forms and structures that are enviably
made available. Already, the university has set
aside a whopping N350 million for the initial
take off. After about six decades of its
existence, the management of the university
felt it was high time the institution extends its
rich intellectual heritage towards the growth
and development of a virile, private sector, not
only in Nigeria, but also the whole of Africa.
This, the university intends to achieve through
supply of new breed, first rate economic policy,
and corporate managers, as well as
entrepreneurs that are able and willing to
ensure the accelerated development of Nigeria
in particular and Africa in general, under the
auspices of a private sector driven policy
framework. This, it seeks to achieve through
the offering of internationally competitive
programmes and products in business
education, research and management. From
available facts, the Vice Chancellor of the
University, Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole richly
deserves public commendation for his
enthusiasm in ensuring that the UISB takes
off. Prof. Adewole who believes that other
people must light their candle from the
knowledge base of the university has always
been saying that Ibadan must keep adding
value to the society. Inaugurating the UISB
Board recently in Lagos, the VC who called on
private sector players to key into the new
vision.
Although there is still a long distant to
destination as billions of Naira required to build
main building, library, lecture theatre as well as
other external works remain elusive, short time
programmes and consultancy as well as
research for willing organizations and
companies have begun in earnest. Pioneering
staff members of the UISB including Mr. Lucky
Igonor deserve kudos for their commitment
and sacrifice in laying the foundation for the
new School of Business under the supervision
of the “Iron Lady”, Prof. Osofisan, the Director.
It might not be too much to provide a Business
School that meets international standard.
There is no point travelling abroad for a course
that could be taken in Nigeria. If the standard
is solid, the growing intelligence gap will be
filled as the boundaries of human knowledge
gets expanded towards uplifting the society.
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