Prof. John Olorunmaiye, the former Vice-Chancellor, Crown-Hill University, has called for the adoption and implementation of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) to enhance the quality of engineering education in Nigeria.
Olorunmaiye made the call at the second Prof. Olusoji Ofi Distinguished Academic Lecture 2023 organized by the Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers (NIMechE), Ibadan chapter, on Thursday.
He said the adoption of OBE in the training of engineers would make them employable globally.
According to him, OBE emphasizes student-centered learning and focuses on output instead of input.
Olorunmaiye, the guest lecturer at the event, listed some of the problems affecting the delivery of high-quality engineering education in Nigeria as inadequate number or quality of academic and non-academic staff in many universities.
“We also have an excessive number of students in some universities especially public universities, lack of modern equipment or inadequate number of equipment in the laboratories, weak or poor industrial training programs, and poorly motivated staff, among others,” he said.
“Specific and clearly defined outcomes must be described to the students to set their own expectations and means to achieve the desired outcome.
“If the students trained in the engineering programs run in Nigerian universities are to compete well with products of similar programs trained in developed countries, there is a need to enhance the quality of engineering education,” he said.
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Also speaking, the National Chairman, of NIMechE, Dr. Olufunmilade Akingbagbohun, said that the lecture was apt as it addressed what the country needs for growth and development.
Akingbagbohun said engineering remains the bedrock of growth and development for any country.
“Any nation that aspires to grow or develop requires engineering because the profession is about problem-solving,” she said.
She said that NIMechE had created many solutions in engineering with professional development and an innovation strategic program.
“We have started industry-academic parley by taking people from industry to the academia to bridge the huge gap between the classroom and industry,” she said.
The celebrant, Prof. Olusoji Ofi, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Administration, at the University of Ibadan (UI), said that the guest lecturer who also graduated from UI represented the original design concept of the engineering profession of the university.
Ofi, a Fellow of the Nigeria Society of Engineers and the inventor of the first instant powdered pounded yam in the world, thanked NIMechE for the recognition of his contributions to the engineering profession.
Earlier, the Chairman, of NIMechE, Oyo state chapter, Mr. Victor Ogunranti, a Fellow of Nigeria Society of Engineers, said that the lecture was named after the celebrant to give him a long-deserved proper recognition for his humble sacrifice and service as the doyen of Mechanical Engineering.
