Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), has reiterated the agency’s commitment to supporting quality research in Nigerian universities.
Bogo said this shortly after inaugurating some projects at Plateau State University, Bokkos, on Friday.
Inaugurated projects include; the university’s Senate building and the newly created Faculty of Health Sciences.
Bogoro argued that the ranking of each university depends on the quality of its workforce, hence the need to train and retrain academic staff.
“Yes, the physical infrastructure in the universities is good, but in the ranking, the quality of their faculties, in other words, the quality of their professors is deeper.
“That’s what I call the proper content component of the university system; it is the lifeline of every university.
“We have been supporting universities so that they have quality researchers in various disciplines; We will continue to do so so that our universities compete favorably with their counterparts abroad,” he said.
Bogoro explained that TETFund had started supporting postdoctoral research abroad for those who have their doctorates locally.
“This idea is to allow them to have experience abroad and apply it to improve our systems at home,” he added.
He promised that TETFUND would continue to support universities to ensure well-equipped laboratories that would become reference facilities for other countries.
The executive secretary promised to periodically support the university in the areas of research and infrastructure so that it becomes a citadel of knowledge that contributes to the growth and development of society.
Previously, Professor Yohanna Izam, vice-chancellor of the university, said that the Senate building was part of the TETFund 2019 High Impact Special Intervention, while the Faculty of Health building is part of the ordinary intervention.
He thanked the fund for considering the university for the intervention, adding that the projects would improve teaching and research at the institution.
“As I speak, there are 11 completed and ongoing TETFund projects at this university.
“We consider ourselves lucky and deeply grateful to the executive secretary for approving these projects for us,” he said.
Izam promised to put the facilities to good use to promote quality education in the institution.
NAN
