MANAGING NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOTAL PERSON IN AN ERA OF ECONOMIC RECESSION

Abstract

Traditionally, universities, the world over, are saddled with the work of teaching, research and community services, apart from what modern scholars now refer to as incidental functions. In the area of teaching, universities see to the production of manpower who are learned in the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the local, national and international environments and who should be able to contribute to finding solutions to problems of man and society. In the 21st century society, which is observed to be immersed in hydra-headed problems, among them insecurity, war, menace of diseases and other social scourges, universities are therefore supposed to produce men who can fathom the challenges. This can only be done if their products can be all round individuals or what is referred to as the total persons. Producing men and women of this category leaves much to be desired on the shoulders of university administrators, especially at a time when the economy is biting hard and if universities must not go into extinction because of economic hardship, the managers of our universities must adopt appropriate and amenable strategies for managing these institutions in the interest of man and society. This piece is therefore an exposition on the strategies for managing Nigerian universities in an era of economic recession for the development of the total person for societal consumption.