Funmi Ogundare
The Chairman of the Governing Council of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Prof. Funso Isolaowa Afolabi, has referred to as for pressing institutional reforms and the institution of a brilliant intelligence drive to handle rising challenges because the establishment prepares to transition into the Federal University of Technology and Vocational Studies, Yaba, Lagos.
Afolabi, who made the decision on the third quarterly common assembly of the Governing Council, described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s assent to the invoice establishing the college as a defining second within the establishment’s historical past.
He acknowledged that the event ought to spur renewed dedication to accountability, transparency, innovation, employees welfare and improved tutorial requirements.
In his paper titled, ‘Answering Tomorrow: Future-Facing Our Collective Pursuits of Higher Technical Learning and Practice in an Institution in Transition’, he stated the anticipated transition requires the governing council, administration and tutorial board to maneuver past celebrating the achievement and start getting ready for the calls for of college standing.
“We are now ready to start answering tomorrow,” he acknowledged, emphasising the necessity to translate the institutional transformation into measurable enhancements in instructing, analysis, sensible coaching, infrastructure, employees welfare and pupil growth.
He recognized transparency and accountability in pupil admissions and administration, employees recruitment and retention, technical operations, pupil affairs, skilled union relations, tutorial administration, exterior collaborations, analysis, venture monitoring, campus safety and services administration as precedence areas requiring sustained consideration.
The chairman stated the establishment had adopted a number of governance and administration methods to handle its challenges, together with digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), efficiency critiques, benchmarking, infrastructure rehabilitation, stronger partnerships, self-discipline and rewards, and outsourcing.
He additionally emphasised the necessity to strengthen analysis and growth, publications, entrepreneurship, technical innovation and environmentally sustainable practices, whereas adapting international options to native wants.
Afolabi stated the success of the reforms would rely on efficient collaboration among the many governing council, administration and tutorial board, with choices guided by details, skilled requirements and the establishment’s long-term pursuits.
He added that YABATECH should protect its historic management in technical schooling whereas embracing the tutorial tradition and operational calls for related to its transition to a college.
To gauge expectations in regards to the establishment’s future, the chairman introduced survey findings masking pupil coaching and funding, employees growth and welfare and services throughout the Yaba and Epe campuses.
The findings confirmed that 82 per cent of respondents expressed optimism about enhancements in pupil coaching and funding, whereas 71 per cent anticipated progress in employees growth and welfare. Another 63 per cent anticipated enhancements in services and buildings.
Afolabi described the outcomes as an encouraging indication of confidence within the establishment’s future however warned that the optimistic outlook mustn’t result in complacency.
He stated the findings additionally highlighted the necessity to deal with infrastructure gaps, enhance employees welfare, strengthen pupil assist and be sure that the advantages of the transition reached members of the school group throughout each campuses.
The council chairman attributed the establishment’s transformation to the mixed efforts of the Federal Government, National Assembly, governing council, administration, tutorial board, employees, college students, skilled unions and different stakeholders.
Afolabi additional confused the significance of efficient public relations and protocol in speaking the establishment’s achievements, managing stakeholder expectations and reassuring employees and college students in regards to the alternatives and tasks accompanying the transition.
He urged the governing council and administration to maintain their collaboration, undertake proactive approaches to institutional challenges and be sure that all reforms have been carried out persistently and sustainably.
“Timely interventions and effective follow-through would be critical to securing the institution’s future and ensuring that its transition into a university delivered tangible benefits,” the chairman acknowledged.
