Strategic Planning For ICT At The University Of Jos

by L. S. O. Liverpool

 

The University of Jos was the first university in Nigeria to embrace strategic planning. Its first comprehensive strategic plan covered the five-year period 1998-2003.  To nurture a university of the highest standard, rated as one of the best three in Nigeria, it adopted the eight goals below and fifty-five strategies.

 

* Comprehensive strength in undergraduate programs.
* First class PG and professional programs in a significant number of areas.
* A quality academic and conducive working environment.
* Academic and administrative staff of national and international distinction.
* Effective and efficient utilization of limited resources.
* Increased provision and use of information technology.
* Decentralization and transparency in administration.
* Increased participation of a diverse range of stakeholders.

 

Our experience presents some success stories! We have started new degree programs in Mass Communications and Computer Science. A VSAT now provides full Internet access on all our three campuses. Generators and pilot solar-powered hybrid systems provide uninterrupted electric power supply for essential services. Automatic training positions are offered to our first class graduates. We are fostering cooperation with research institutions nationally and abroad. We are using our strategic plan to seek international funding partners.

 

The plan assumed university autonomy would be in place but this is still not the case.  We have therefore been handicapped to implement certain aspects of the plan. We have been unable to introduce an admission quota for privately sponsored and foreign students. Tuition fees from these students would have subsidized the publicly sponsored ones. Recently the President held discussions with the universities, banking and other financial houses. Government now wants to foster partnerships between universities and the private sector to manage student hostels and staff accommodation. 

 

The University has already initiated action to produce the second cycle of its strategic plan. Strategic planning has come to stay! This second round of strategic planning is under way under the chairmanship of the DVC Academic; a real planning culture is taking root as we review successes and failures of the first cycle of the plan and begin to formulate the second. Areas of strength and innovation highlighted in the first cycle of the plan include Pharmaceutical Sciences and ICT—areas in which the University continues to nurture emerging centres of excellence.

 

This paper will examine the strategic planning experience at the University of Jos and in particular look at strategic planning for ICT. It will review the evolution and implementation of the ICT plan, in the context of strategic planning across the university and the Nigerian HE sector. It will also look at problems and prospects for strategic planning for ICT as the second cycle of the plan is put in place.