As a development university, AUN contributes $100m to Nigeria’s economy – Ensign
Margee Ensign is the third president of American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State. She earned her BA from New College in Florida and her PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Maryland. She began her administrative career at Colombia University, in New York City, where she was director of the International Political Economy programme. Ensign is a widely published scholar whose works focus primarily on the challenges of international development, as well as on the implications of development assistance. In this encounter, Ensign told ZEBULON AGOMUO, deputy editor, who was at the AUN recently, about the exploits of the institution, its contributions to Nigeria’s economy, among other issues. Excerpts:
Exchange or global study programmes are very important in the university education, particularly an international institution of AUN stature; how is your university faring in this area?
We belong to some of the associations that offer opportunities to expose our students. We are a member of Association of American International Colleges and Universities (AAICU). We have our own study abroad agreement. We have bilateral programmes with some universities abroad, such as American University in Washington, with University of Akansas, with Oxford, among others.
Again, the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (GLAA) programmes have just been launched; we just signed the GLAA agreement in Hong Kong recently. We have succeeded to get 27 countries around the world to be members of that organisation; now everybody is on board and each institution prepares the programme they think is important to their students and students coming to the university. So, we are preparing our minors in global studies and students in our programme with courses in global studies and cross-cultural training in the countries they are going to and they may have to spend two semesters overseas. I expect the impact to be huge. I think, as Nigeria becomes a world power, it needs leaders who spend time outside of Nigeria as well as inside. I think the more we can train these young future leaders to go out, to see different cultures, countries and contacts, and bring that knowledge back and adapt them for Nigeria’s purposes; I think that is very important. I think we’ve got to develop future ambassadors for Nigeria and to replace this generation. So, I think this society will benefit greatly because no country can develop in isolation.
The GLAA programmes are new opportunities for highly motivated students seeking experience and active responsibility beyond AUN and Nigeria. The opportunities are a minor in globalisation studies and a global scholar Programme. Under both programmes, students will spend a year abroad in two different universities that are members of the GLAA. Both programmes prepare students for leadership and personal effectiveness in our interconnected world through a study of topics of global focus that transcend national borders. Fourteen of the 27 universities that make up the GLAA will start accepting students this fall. GLAA is an alliance of 27 liberal arts universities, including AUN, in 15 countries. The Great Lakes Colleges Association based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, coordinates the activities and projects of the Alliance and was instrumental in its formation in 2009. The alliance programmes are financed with the support of the Endeavour Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
How would your MBA programme in Business and Entrepreneurship impact the Nigerian market, given the level of unemployment in the country?
I think the work we do in Yola is more of community development work. Every AUN student is always out working in the community, teaching ICT, entrepreneurship; teaching how to use the computer. In the area of poverty reduction, a lot is already being done by AUN and we all should be involved here. You’ve got three quarter of young people out of job; the incoming APC government says it is all about job, job, and job. But you’ve got to have an educated workforce. So, I think the question is, how do you create massive employment for people who don’t have high level of education? You can do it- China and India did it. It is possible through agriculture if you can get people interested in agriculture. So, I hope there will be a marriage of employment strategy of ideas, jobs for everyone with education, with agriculture and with probably manufacturing. You can’t just talk about new jobs; how do you create them? So, that’s not the job of the community; that’s for the central government; it has to come up with right policies and incentives to make sure that they use the public treasury in the right way now. There’s also need for vocational training and others. I think the model the AUN has developed for poverty reduction in its community will have a huge impact nationwide. If every university takes on entrepreneurship programmes, literacy programmes, teaching people how to use computers, it will have a geometric impact in the country. But the employment is a high level of work. We hire people here; I think we are, probably, the highest employer of labour in the region. We pump about a hundred million dollars ($100m) in this region, what is that in Naira? We are gigantic generator of economic growth here, not just in Adamawa, but in the region as a whole. I hope it should be said that what the founder did here is not just a university, any time you pull a successful university in a community, the whole region benefits. The impact is felt everywhere. We hire people from Chibok, Maiduguri and all over.
Is that part of your corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme?
No, that’s direct employment. And you look at the spin-off impact, if you employ one person here in Nigeria, more than 30 family members benefit; at least, I see that here more than anywhere else. Our CSR, to use your word, is in the form of literacy and so many other things. But we don’t call it CSR because we are a university, we are not business. Our mission is to be a development university. So, we have a different mission compared to other universities. It is not just to train students to be business people, but to train the future leaders to know what the problems are, and to know there are solutions; that they are problem solvers. So, they can connect the knowledge from the classrooms and use them to solve problems. Other universities don’t do that, they don’t train people to solve problems; they train them to think about ideas, and by so doing they are facing huge challenges because different models of education are being applied.
You’ve been in Nigeria for some time now; do you have any suggestion how the nation’s education system can be improved upon?
I think Nigeria is at a critical point in history for its educational system. It is growing so rapidly, doubling in every 24 or 25 years. Nigeria needs right now 300,000 (three hundred thousand) primary school teachers. The country doesn’t have them. There’s need to build mobile schools. So, we believe this is the answer. There’s need to train more teachers and young people using the latest technology. Here in AUN, we train people on ICT programme and we give free training to vulnerable people. And because people keep coming up, it makes me realise this is going to work. The answer in Nigeria is to quickly and wisely use technology to train teachers and children/students. The point is, if people still think traditionally about education in Nigeria, they are going to miss it. But I have serious fears about what is happening; I can’t see any policy statement saying use technology to wisely educate people. At AUN promote technology. The illiteracy rate in Adamawa is 77 percent. Seventy-seven percent of people who cannot read, how can they hold a job down; how can they vote? But the bottomline is that there are now solutions; we are pioneering them. So, what we are talking about is high level of research; that’s what Nigeria needs now. So, widespread literacy, entrepreneurship training that’s what Nigeria needs; it doesn’t have to take place in school. Job is really important, but what kind of job would people have if they don’t have education in the country?
We gathered that by September, the AUN would be starting a Law faculty…
We hope so, we have to jump through the hoops of regulators; so, we are right now advertising for a dean, and others. And the NUC and Council of legal education are checking to see whether we can do what we say we are going to do. We’re hoping.
Some people say AUN is costly and that they can’t afford it. Why is it so?
Who are they comparing us with? This is a world class American education; it will cost five times in America. We cost less than a national school in Abuja; and we cost less than a national school in Lagos. We cost less than some secondary schools in this country. So, I reject that argument. We also use up to 18 percent of our funds to fund scholarship. Show me another university in this country that is giving full scholarships to students? Show me any other university that granted full scholarship to about 21 young women that escaped from Chibok? So, I am actually tired of hearing that argument; people need to do their research to know exactly the true position of things; we cost less than many secondary schools in Nigeria. Don’t forget that when children stay in their culture, I have been an educator for 20 years; I will never send a 15 or 16-year old Nigerian to America or UK, a lot of parents do it. They don’t get the support these young people need; so, I am a firm believer- for your first degree, stay in your country, then prepare to go to another culture if you want to go to a graduate school. Here, we have children of poor farmers whom we pay for fully. I love to have somebody do a story some day, rather than saying AUN is expensive, the person says AUN uses its own money for scholarship.