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Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years - Politics - Nairaland

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Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by red101(f): 2:23am On Oct 02, 2014
We often like to compare Nigeria to developed countries and become frustrated by how far behind we seem to be. I found this quote in a blog and it really struck me as being very valid. Development is a very slow process and requires mass education. High quality one. Look at all the developed countries and something they all share in common is their education rates and intellectual output, whether in the arts, humanities or sciences. These are the things that inform culture which in turn reinforces development. What do you think?

Here's the quote:
When former Sen. Daniel Moynihan was serving as ambassador to India in the early 1970s, he was asked what Bombay, now Mumbai, needed to do to become a great global city. Moynihan answered, 'Build a world-class university and wait 200 years.'"
Re: Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by ghostofsparta(m): 6:57pm On Oct 07, 2014
red101:
We often like to compare Nigeria to developed countries and become frustrated by how far behind we seem to be. I found this quote in a blog and it really struck me as being very valid. Development is a very slow process and requires mass education. High quality one. Look at all the developed countries and something they all share in common is their education rates and intellectual output, whether in the arts, humanities or sciences. These are the things that inform culture which in turn reinforces development. What do you think?
Here's the quote:
When former Sen. Daniel Moynihan was serving as ambassador to India in the early 1970s, he was asked what Bombay, now Mumbai, needed to do to become a great global city. Moynihan answered, 'Build a world-class university and wait 200 years.'"
What do I think?

Well, for one...I don't agree with the idea of having along with the already many here, another university constructed into a 'world class' status not only because it definitely WOULD become unaffordable to that family in Kogi State whose precocious child could have attended, but also because in a bid to churn out great minds in less than two centuries in order to bring about the sort of revolutionary transformation in thinking is tantamount to having such a world class institution is the most utterly ludicrous thought of the highest order. Apart from attending a secondary school, I haven't been to any high institution my whole life and may not be qualified in a given field of discipline but still nevertheless consider myself educated to a degree, as I am equally skilled in certain areas.

Those who are comparing the education institutions of those developed countries to ours should ask themselves if their state of advancement in science and technology today is entirely the result of their world-class universities or the other way round, to aid knowledge, research and its application? As far as I am concerned, for any society to be advanced in the modern world, they minds must first be liberated off the confines of religious dogmas and doctrines that have imprisoned their liberty to think creatively far beyond the realms to which innovations are cornered as I have explained here

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Re: Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by GooseBaba: 11:38pm On Oct 07, 2014
red101:
We often like to compare Nigeria to developed countries and become frustrated by how far behind we seem to be. I found this quote in a blog and it really struck me as being very valid. Development is a very slow process and requires mass education. High quality one. Look at all the developed countries and something they all share in common is their education rates and intellectual output, whether in the arts, humanities or sciences. These are the things that inform culture which in turn reinforces development. What do you think?

Here's the quote:
When former Sen. Daniel Moynihan was serving as ambassador to India in the early 1970s, he was asked what Bombay, now Mumbai, needed to do to become a great global city. Moynihan answered, 'Build a world-class university and wait 200 years.'"

I disagree with that statement... Because it's a bit condescending. This statement was made in the 70s by an "elite" with a track record in a capitalist government.

You don't need a college degree to start a business. You don't need a university degree to understand how government works and what your rights are, as a citizen of the federal republic of Nigeria. You don't need a university degree to hold your fellow citizens in government accountable for their actions.

For crying out loud, the arts, humanities or sciences that's suppose to reinforce development are distorted or non existing. How in this day and age students are still taught that Mongo park discovered river Niger.. With such distorted mentality how do you expect them to find solutions from within..
Re: Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by IGBOSON1: 12:11am On Oct 08, 2014
GooseBaba:


I disagree with that statement... Because it's a bit condescending. This statement was made in the 70s by an "elite" with a track record in a capitalist government.

You don't need a college degree to start a business. You don't need a university degree to understand how government works and what your rights are, as a citizen of the federal republic of Nigeria. You don't need a university degree to hold your fellow citizens in government accountable for their actions.

For crying out loud, the arts, humanities or sciences that's suppose to reinforce development are distorted or non existing. How in this day and age students are still taught that Mongo park discovered river Niger.. With such distorted mentality how do you expect them to find solutions from within..


^^^The statement was obviously made by an elite on crack! sad

Singapore, South Korea, and even Dubai sef......these countries and city have bucked the trend and have proved Danny boy wrong!
Re: Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by GooseBaba: 3:14am On Oct 08, 2014
IGBOSON1:


^^^The statement was obviously made by an [i]elite on crack[/i]! sad

Singapore, South Korea, and even Dubai sef......these countries and city have bucked the trend and have proved Danny boy wrong!

Lmao..!!!!! I was trying to be modest..

If one reads or listens to the speech or statements of these old guards and their superiority complex. It's either they are trying to rip you off or belittle you..
Re: Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by red101(f): 4:23am On Oct 09, 2014
interesting comments. Although I don't agree with most of Moynihan's politics or ideology, I very much like and agree with the statement. I believe that it's all in the way you interpret it.

@ghostofsparta,

-many world class universities are very affordable and in some cases free. these universities are sustained by endowments (donations) and do not rely simply on fees hence why they are able to accept students mostly based on intellectual promise.ex. at MIT, harvard etc tuition is free if you are middle class or less. http://web.mit.edu/facts/tuition.html
most funding will have to come from the government (tax payers) and donors or philanthropists.

-I'm glad you admit that your formal education is limited to secondary school because this partially explains that boko-haramic thread you created claiming that ebola and HIV are man-made by the western world. The quote about world class universities doesn't apply to the west only. The existence of world class universities extend spatially and temporally.ex Timbuktu few centuries ago. another example is China's rising research universities:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/27/new-book-explores-achievements-and-challenges-chinas-rising-research-universities

-universities are incubators. society needs institutions like it for the kind of research that leads to things like the computer you are typing from. without universities, you won't have the internet, TV, radio, space technology, computers, smartphones, cars, pharmaceuticals and most technologies we take for granted that may even seem to be the selling point of western civilization. even many public policies are based on ideas first developed by intellectuals and students in universities.
here's an example:
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2015/oct/university-research-100814.html
Re: Build World-class Universities And Wait 200 Years by iamord(m): 5:14pm On Nov 02, 2014
Glad I stumble on this piece. all I can say is that blacks are the most un serious race on planet earth..and have no vision of the future.. If they do its so distorted.. Serious work needs to be done. and time is going

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