ARE NIGERIAN 'GRADUATES' REALLY GRADUATES IN THE REAL SENSE OF THE WORD?

I keep wondering the kind of stuff that Nigerian universities are producing. A friend of mine who studied engineering in NAU and graduated with a 2-1 confessed to me that he doesn't know anything when it comes to engineering. How come?

I was really embarrassed the other day, when I was discussing with some economics undergraduates here in the UK. I'm supposed to be a Masters student here but I felt like a fool because I’m afraid I knew nothing about the topics they raised owing to the fact that I was under-educated in Nigeria.

More appalling was the day I couldn't help but overhear a so-called psychologist spitting shit. He made so many grammatical blunders that I denied my nationality. I became an emergency Congolese.

What is your take on these, guys?

I've also been having this doubt in my mind also.

You find out that most graduates thats graduates from Nigerian universities still have lot of things to learn. I'm not saying that when you school overseas you get the best education but you find out that those over there are much more knowledgable than the ones in Nigeria.

I also had a conversation with a friend overseas and some issues were raised based on the field we were both into and I discovered that our discussion was based on things I'm supposed to know in my 4th year and we happened to have started school at the same time.

I'm not saying Nigeria is not a good place for education, but our problem is just that we lack the facilities and until the government looks into the education sector, I'm afraid, we'll graduate and still don't know anything.

U guys talk rubbish! I just finished an MSc in UK with some guys, we all came from Nigeria together on the course. We all finished top in the class, better than the English or French guys. What are you guys talking about? We did our first degree in Nigeria and did very well here, always ahead of our classmates.
I can also reveal that the school we attended is one of the top post graduate school in the whole of Europe! in case you are in doubt.

I find the same thing occurin when i talk to some of my friends in Benin. There's this particular guy that goes to a private Uni and he's supposed to be in his First year Medical School, but when i asked him wat quadrant the Liver was in the body, my guy just changed direction. When i prodded him on it, he told me that they were just starting, this is like after a semester. I just felt sorry.

a lot of students in nigerian universities have no business being there. quite a number of nigerian graduates do not posses skill in their various fields. there are however a number which can hold their head up in any university in the world. So i will say that some nigerian graduates are really graduates.

If I may venture my opinion..

Universities all over the world are learning grounds, where they impart certain skills... Hardly do they ever bring out the finished product..

The unfortunate truth about Nigerian Universities in particular is that with all the bruhaha running concurrently [academic strife, victimisation from lecturers, politics, groove, etc etc] the typical Nigerian student really doesn't have time to apply him/herself to the main goals of being in the university.. study and self-development.. many nigerian students, if quizzed, would hardly admit to taking time on their own to self-develop (read outside the scope).. they would rather be spoon-fed via lectures and assignments.. the coursework self (where it exists..), is often submitted according to last minute deadlines, which are often not met..
Also, opportunities for interaction with other academic spheres are often limited.. No viable exchange programs with schools of other countries, even the various industrial/training attachments and placements are hardly done according to the way they are supposed to be..

This having been said, despite all this, Nigerian graduates are still able to perform, and given adequate time, excel in their chosen fields, despite the poor preparation.. So, in effect, they have acquired some skills during the completion of their academic programs..

I do believe Nigerian graduates are worth their salt, and can hold sway with the international academic community.. they just need time to mature..

you guys need to quit being so negative. You meet one nigeria student that doesn't know the answer to an engineering question on the spot and you claim nigerian graduates are bad. In my experince, virtually all of them have been outstanding students. Hardly any of the have been less than average. They beat out the foriegn students consistently.

give me a break! Wole Soyinka,Gani Fawehinmi,Chinua Achebe to list but few are all graduates of notable university in Nigeria whom have carved niches for themselves at home and at abroad. However some Nigerians had passed through the same system and can hadly define the course they presumably studied for 4 academic sessions and that includes me.it's partly a personal phenomenom and partly the educational system's fault. A case where a student's curriculum is filled with courses not concerned with his course of study.imagine me an accounting student taking geography and regional planning as a compulsory course and me on the students level attending one club party to the other throughout a semester because i want to be pupolar on campus.so you see its every body's fault. we need not point fingers but find solutions. so fellow Nigerian's what is the way out.
ps; dont mind my grammar its part of what we are debating on. mind you i am proud to be a Nigerian breed graduate

give me a break! Wole Soyinka,Gani Fawehinmi,Chinua Achebe to list but few are all graduates of notable university in Nigeria whom have carved niches for themselves at home and at abroad.

80% of the newly graduates are more or less half baked. I have cousin that recently finished her service year, she studied computer science and i find it very hard to believe that she does not even know how to open her yahoo email box.

One thing i mostly believe in is that the number of years you spend in school does not matter, what matters is your ability to develop yourself.

omon:

U guys talk rubbish! I just finished an MSc in UK with some guys, we all came from Nigeria together on the course. We all finished top in the class, better than the English or French guys. What are you guys talking about? We did our first degree in Nigeria and did very well here, always ahead of our classmates.
I can also reveal that the school we attended is one of the top post graduate school in the whole of Europe! in case you are in doubt.

abeg, which school be that? what MSc course is that? i bet it's a conversion course. where are u guys working now?

obong:

you guys need to quit being so negative. You meet one nigeria student that doesn't know the answer to an engineering question on the spot and you claim nigerian graduates are bad. In my experince, virtually all of them have been outstanding students. Hardly any of the have been less than average. They beat out the foriegn students consistently.

guy, most nigerian undergraduates don't know sh*t. i know that because i've been in the system. have you?

otokx:

a lot of students in nigerian universities have no business being there. quite a number of nigerian graduates do not posses skill in their various fields. there are however a number which can hold their head up in any university in the world. So i will say that some nigerian graduates are really graduates.

right on the money my man. to be a "real" graduates in nigeria isn't easy. you literally have to be self-taught during your undergrad years. these good guys are more like research students than undergrad. besides that undergrads in nigeria are always short on books, short on lecturer-support. the engineering and science students are short on pratical and lab work.

for instance, taking me as an example, i studied "mathematics and computer science" - a five year bachelor's at FUTO. it ended up being bloody five years of only mathematics. computer science didn't exist. i was completely on my own in that aspect. like most computer-savvy nigerian people i've had to teach myself stuff like programming and study the computer science fundamentals.

now, i'm currently doing an MSc in Computer Graphics Programming in the UK (an advanced course that requires a 2.1 CS degree and computer programming experience). it ain't easy competing with these foreign guys that had it easy in their undergrad years. but i know i'll cope because i'm not stupid.

if anything, FUTO made me tough.

This last post really do justice to the matter at hand.

codec i have been in the system and have worked with many nigerian graduates. Just because you arent bright doesnt mean they are like you

obong:

codec i have been in the system and have worked with many nigerian graduates. Just because you arent bright doesnt mean they are like you

guy. did i insult your mother? why the hell do you think i'm "not bright"? yankee boy, no start with me oh.

Codec, I agree with Obong and you should try and respect what people say. Find out about Cranfield University, the courses they offer and the respect they have earned themselves in major industries. And for your information, most of my Nigerian classmates are working with top flight oil companies. Finally, birds of the same feather flock together, that might explain why you have not met with brilliant Nigerians abroad...lol. On a serious note, in the journey through my career, I have met outstanding Nigerians in various fields who had studied in Nigerian universities. I think you should learn to acknowledge that. May be FUTO was not good enough, but Greatest UNIBEN! gave me what I needed for a start.

Wat faculty were u in at Uniben?

See Men

I studied mechanical engineering in UNIBEN. Hey Scorpio, were you ever in UNIBEN?

Didn't get that pleasure, but had family, friends, confra ppl in there!

omon:

Codec, I agree with Obong and you should try and respect what people say. Find out about Cranfield University, the courses they offer and the respect they have earned themselves in major industries. And for your information, most of my Nigerian classmates are working with top flight oil companies. Finally, birds of the same feather flock together, that might explain why you have not met with brilliant Nigerians abroad.... On a serious note, in the journey through my career, I have met outstanding Nigerians in various fields who had studied in Nigerian universities. I think you should learn to acknowledge that. May be FUTO was not good enough, but Greatest UNIBEN! gave me what I needed for a start.

na wa o. whats all this beef? well, u might know lotsa "brilliant" nigerian graduates but that only counts for probably 2% of all nigerian graduates. i myself know brilliant graduates but i'm sure they count for less than 1% of all nigerian graduates. like joftech said, 80% of new graduates are half-baked - that's the key sentence here.

for pete's sake, i served (nysc) and man, i met graduates that couldn't make simple sentences. when i was opening my nysc bank account at first bank, one of the staff was actually "impressed" that i could fill an application form. he said i was the first person to do so without his help. he just kept complaining to me about how f--ked up nigerian graduates were.

anyway, i just googled cranfield. not bad but i aint heard of it before. i'm at University of Hull, if u want to know. i can't boast if its a big school or not but they are the best at the MSc i'm doing - thats for sure.

your friends? top flight oil companies? where? if its nigeria, then guy fashi!, FUTO graduates dominate the nigerian oil industry. UNIBEN people only know cult and strike.

u havent even answered my question. what course did u study and where are u (not your friends) working now?

I wonder if anyone in here have ever give it a thought why the Federal Government changed the 6-3-3-4 education pattern. The government has realised that Nigerian graduates are only paper certified.

It's now mandatory that you must have a first degree before you can proceed to study medicine here in Nigeria, LAW and some other courses/studies carry the same price. Do people think they, the FG felt people should just spend more time in schools.

I will like everyone here in Nigeria to lower their guards and come to reality and access the situation on ground from an open point of view.

Codec has been able to come out and show what's rightly obtianable here in Nigeria today. The situation is really bad that most fresh graduates are going for masters degree right after finishing their service year.

Until we learn to shun the paper certify craze, the situation will remain a lose-lose situation.

joftech:

I will like everyone here in Nigeria to lower their guards and come to reality and access the situation on ground from an open point of view.

Codec has been able to come out and show what's rightly obtianable here in Nigeria today. The situation is really bad that most fresh graduates are going for masters degree right after finishing their service year.

Until we learn to shun the paper certify craze, the situation will remain a lose-lose situation.

Thank You! Right on point. The situation IS really bad.

No matter how pro-nigerian omon and Oblong want to be about it, let me ask them this: "would you send your children through a nigerian university?". i'm guessing your answer would be "yes" since you believe we produce "excellent" graduates.

well, as for me, i would but ONLY IF the educational system gets better and i hope it will even though at the moment it looks hopeless.

Ok, Codec, in every society, you have those who can go through the educational system. It is not different here in UK. There are lots of British people who can't go to scholl and will not go to school, but you count them as literate because they speak english-that is their language.

You would not have heard of Cranfield b/cos it is a school for postgraduate study and research only. You have to be working in the industry to know their worth, or you may want to ask your lecturers. Well, I studied Offshore Pipeline Engr in the school. Some of my friends are working here in the UK and some have gone back to Nigeria and they earn good money too.

I don't agree with your statistics that only 2% of Nigerian graduates are good - where are you getting such data? I agree the system is not as good as it used to be, but it will wrong to outrightly rubbish those who have worked hard to get through the system

When did u finish?

omon:

I studied mechanical engineering in UNIBEN. Hey Scorpio, were you ever in UNIBEN?

CimonJorr, did u attend UNIBEN. I finished with the '98 set.

omon:

CimonJorr, did u attend UNIBEN. I finished with the '98 set.

ah. u should have said this earlier. u finished a long time ago - the last glory days of the nigerian education system. 1998 was when i got in. so thats why we see things differently. things are really bad now.

omon:

Ok, Codec, in every society, you have those who can go through the educational system. It is not different here in UK. There are lots of British people who can't go to scholl and will not go to school, but you count them as literate because they speak english-that is their language.

i never said anything about this.

"omon":

You would not have heard of Cranfield b/because it is a school for postgraduate study and research only. You have to be working in the industry to know their worth, or you may want to ask your lecturers. Well, I studied Offshore Pipeline Engr in the school. Some of my friends are working here in the UK and some have gone back to Nigeria and they earn good money too.

cool. good for you guys.

"omon":

I don't agree with your statistics that only 2% of Nigerian graduates are good - where are you getting such data? I agree the system is not as good as it used to be, but it will wrong to outrightly rubbish those who have worked hard to get through the system

i meant the "brilliant" graduates you know = 2% not the percentage of good graduates.

Ok, Codec, I give it to u this time.. i think I get ur gist.

Be like say some people don stay for oyinbo land so tae dem no know wetin dey happen for naija proper now.

what are u guys talking about, a lecturer cannot break your head and put stuff, u learn what u choose to in a school.
obinnaoji, it's not the fault of the lecturer, the school or Nigeria that u guys don't represent out there its probably because u cheated, sorted or crammed while in school. i finished from NAU with a 2-2 in a science course and i am an example in my work place, so u see its only u that can decide what to make of yourself.[color=#000099][/color]

Hey i really believe all the university system here does is to toughen you up for later and if you are fortunate enough to get into one of the better universities you'd learn something especially lots of theoretical stuff. Practically you'd probably be a mess except of course you work on yourself or you go to some of the private ones which i hear have some facilities. Most times you're simply on your own. .....OFfcourse i finished from GREATIFE.

I think by and large everybody has made very good contributions to this topic on the state of the Nigerian graduate.

I agree that our educational system has declined over the years to its present sorry state, its gotten really really bad lets not kid ourselves; sciences no longer have practicals but alternative to practicals, probably the humanities and the arts may have fared a bit better, but the whole thing has gone to hell. When i was growing up, it was usually the olodo's amongst us who were pulled out of nigerian schools and taken abroad because they could not cope with the prevailing standards and back then there was no sorting or expo. It was not a thing of pride to study abroad! but look at us now.

Where are the lecturers? they have all fled in search of greener pastures and what we have left are a calibre of teachers (with a few exceptions) who all things being equal could never have made it to teach in secondary schools not to talk of our universities. Students are preoccupied with things that shouldnt concern them. Lecturers are hungry. Grooving to me is not a problem young people will always rock, infact i do not believe we can hold a candle to the grooving of our foreign counterparts who are supposed to be scholastically superior to us.

Its also true that a lot of misfits who shouldnt be there end up in the university and of course their inability to display any discernible learning or intellect after their stay in the university will only serve to add further oppobrium on our educational sector, maybe its because its comparatively cheaper to procure an admission and an education in naija, but i may be wrong.

ASUU and NASU Strikes, the destructive policies of the respective governments of the day, poverty and corruption have not helped matters.

Nevertheless, i also believe that when it comes to self development, the Nigerian graduate is second to none. He is simply cut of a brilliant cloth.

I finished university in '98 and that was long after wole soyinka had rightfully advocated that our universities needed to be shut down for a year so that they could be refurbished and reorganised properly. Then he was shouted down as being an alarmist and a non - conformist, but now we all largely agree that the system urgently requires such radical and drastic treatment.

Personally, the only reason why i will not send my child to a nigerian university is because  Nigeria has become a country that engages in "apartheid" against its own people where "foreign has now become better" and for that reason as long as i am financially able, my child will not go to a nigerian university so that he can enjoy every advantage i did not have. A case in point, in my office a higher premium is placed on a graduate with a foreign degree, they are prepared to pay them  a lot more than the rest of us and they are generally treated like ice cream, but most times, when these people come in, they usually come to us the Naija trained staff to learn what they are supposed to do, also they cant compete with us when it comes to drive, output, initiative and knowledge  so i doff my hat to the "real nigerian graduates"

Hi guys,
Why dont you try and be sincere for once. I graduated from OAU, ile-Ife witha First class in Computer Engineering, so you know what that means.I am now in the US on a scholarship. But on getting here, I have discovered that I wasted my years in the University learning the wrong things.All what I learnt isnt up to what 2nd-yar under graduates here know.Our lecturers back home are so underbaked that they could hardly impart anything to us,and the whole system needs to be revamped.
However I am doing extremely well, whats the secret? Endurance,and not wanting to lose face. Ife has made me tough, so now I make use of all the facilities I never had in Ife,good books, computers, the internet, and so i do very well, and my foriegn classmates get the impression our schools are very good back home. I can assure you this is the situation with a lot of other people, whatever they know, they learnt themselves, not in the universities back home. By the way, I also worked for some years in Nigeria in top companies,yet I got here to discover I really wasnt a computer engineer!