Several Of The World’s Biggest Problems Have Been Solved By The Power Of Collaboration

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE SECOND MATRICULATION CEREMONY OF MIVA OPEN UNIVERSITY IN ABUJA, ON THE 19TH OF OCTOBER, 2024

Protocols

It is such a great pleasure to join you today at this second matriculation ceremony of this incredibly unique university the MIVA Open University. I must especially thank the Chancellor of the University, the visioner and pioneer of Nigeria’s, I believe, first fully operational private open university, Mr. Sim Shagaya, for the kind invitation to me to give this keynote speech. And perhaps more importantly, congratulate him and his team for the establishment of this history-making virtual citadel of learning, research and innovation.

To the matriculating class of 2024, I offer my heartfelt congratulations. This day marks the beginning of an extraordinary journey in higher education, one that places you at the forefront of a revolutionary model that redefines learning with unparalleled innovation.

May I also pay special tribute to the esteemed faculty of MIVA Open University, a distinguished body of scholars and academics charged with the profound responsibility of shaping the future of tertiary education. It is your role to train a new generation of leaders — leaders who will be equipped not only to navigate but to thrive and innovate in a world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

I must also say how excited I am to be in the company of university teachers, scholars and students. Teaching is my first love and I have been a university teacher for 43 years now and I started teaching at the University of Lagos when I was 24. So, I have been a teacher for most of my life.
Let me say straight away that MIVA Open University is the future of university education brought at high speed to the present day. There is no way that higher education in Africa can be effectively delivered to the number of those who want university degrees if we have to build physical universities to accommodate them.

Why? Every year, more than 1.7 million applicants write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and an average of 400,000 gain admission into the universities.

So, 1.3 million mostly young people annually are eligible, but will not have any university admission. Consider also that Nigeria is growing at 6 million people a year, there is no way a brick-and-mortar approach to providing infrastructure for university education can ever work. We must also realize, and when I say we, I mean education policy makers, teachers, students and employers of labour, that education as we knew it is gone forever.

Now and in the future, what we teach, how we teach will never be the same again. This change is motivated by the type and quality of employees that the market wants today and will take for granted tomorrow. And also, how technology, especially artificial intelligence and machine learning, is rapidly transforming business, the professions and the entire marketplace. The innovative, efficient, tech-savvy, problem-solving employee who is a skilled collaborator or co-creator is what the employer wants today.

So how do we achieve that? First, with teaching, the emphasis is going to be on critical thinking and problem-solving. Information gathering, memorizing and regurgitating information is dead. There is so much information and analysis of information already, and that is even more versatile and intelligent with AI tools, so the emphasis now is not on how much information you have, but how you can use it to solve real-life problems. And real-life problems are many and varied, and not tied to the curricula in many of the old and existing disciplines.

So welcome to the new world of Modular Education.

Modular education includes micro-credentials and digital badges. These are short training targeted at providing the student with a particular skill or knowledge usually specifically required in a particular industry or profession. So, for example, IBM’s Digital Badging programs may offer micro-credentials in areas like Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Cybersecurity. These programs are offered in the Computer Science department here at MIVA Open University.



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Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo is a Nigerian Lawyer and Politician who served as the Vice President of Nigeria from the 29th of May 2015 - 29th of May 2023

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