Can ASUU grow beyond strike and learn from private institutions? By Kunle Awosiyan

I stumbled on the piece below on Harvard website and marvelled. The write-up reveals that our Nigeria’s universities lecturers can actually help the government and the country to solve the current educational problems.

Instead of the strike, this piece shows that academics have actually been positioned to help the government and the country at large.

The piece shows how Harvard has been generating billions of dollars from sales of publications and receipt of donations from alumni across the world.

It also says a lot in the contracts that the Harvard Endowment Company is handling for companies and countries to generate fund.

You may say it is a private institution, Yes your right but I can boldly say that the Federal Government of Nigeria has given our public varsities the autonomy to carry out this kind of transaction as a way of generating fund.

I was privileged to know the workings of a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (Names Withheld) a few years ago and observed that there was a degree of autonomy for our varsities.

The only issue they have is not allowing every varsity to directly present its annual budget to the National Assembly without recourse to the Ministry of Education. For me, this is what I think ASUU should be fighting for because it is working for private varsities in Nigeria like most foreign educational institutions.

Dr. Philip Ozuah’s $1 million donation to his Alma Mater, University of Ibadan College of Medicine is still fresh in our memory.

Most Nigeria’s private varsities exploit this idea effectively and it’s working for them. It will not be out of place for public varsities to do the same to solve many of the problems at this period that the government is overwhelmed by global economic recession.

Please read the piece below as copied;

Harvard Received Almost $385 Million from 46 Countries Since August 2019

Harvard has received almost $385 million from sources in 46 countries since August 2019, according to United States Department of Education data.

Previously, a Crimson analysis of Department of Education data found that the University had received over $1.1 billion in foreign funding between Jan. 1, 2013 and July 31, 2019 — a figure later mirrored by an Education Department report in October 2020. Federal officials had been investigating whether Harvard and other universities complied with federal requirements for reporting foreign funding.

Following the investigation, Harvard updated its foreign funding reporting to include a “wider range” of contracts such as “the sale and licensing of academic publications” and “executive education programs.”

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires American universities to disclose contracts and gifts from foreign sources totaling more than $250,000 in a year to the Department of Education, per the department’s website.

The Education Department publishes the data in a regularly-updated online portal. The latest update to the portal revealed an additional $10.9 million in foreign funding received by Harvard prior to Aug. 1, 2019. The University reported these funds in 2020 and 2021 following the expansion of its reporting procedures.

Of the foreign funds Harvard received after August 2019, the University accepted $93.8 million through restricted gifts, $99.7 million through restricted contracts, $84.3 million through gifts, and $107 million through contracts.

Sources from China contributed $69.9 million to Harvard over the same time period, outpacing all other countries. Harvard received 12.9 percent of the total funding given to American universities by Chinese sources — the most of any school.

Additionally, 15.2 percent of overall contributions from Hong Kong to American universities since August 2019 went to Harvard, along with 6.8 percent of the total from England.

Harvard also received 66 percent, or $32.7 million, of total funding from Egyptian sources since August 2019. Of that sum, $31.8 million came from a single contract.

The University did not disclose any funding from Russia during the reporting window.

University spokesperson Christopher M. Hennessey wrote that alumni and donor giving has “remained strong” following the conclusion of the University’s record-breaking capital campaign that raised $9.6 billion between July 2011 and June 2018.

“Throughout Harvard’s history, support from alumni and donors at all levels has been essential to our continued excellence in our research and teaching mission, which in turn enables Harvard’s critical impact in the world by helping to address society’s most pressing issues,” he wrote.

Hennessey attributed a portion of foreign donations to the 69,000 Harvard alumni who live in over 200 different countries.

These donations, he wrote, support financial aid, as well as “research in many critically important areas, student and faculty engagement and more.”