The Need for a Scholarship Database and Tracking for Sustainable Funding in Nigerian Universities

The world is made up of numbers, as Pythagoras would say and data is the new oil of the 21^st century.

Data and datasets are the only metrics to measure progress, it is the foundation of Machine Learning-Artificial Intelligence and the cornerstone of all logical driven decision making. What separates a rich and poor nation? Up-to-date data about the state of the nation, the welfare of the citizens, births, deaths, movement of people, goods and services.

In academics and universities across the world, the same applies. How are universities ranked? How are funding allocated? How do we track the extent of social investments made in the students and research in our institutions? It is all data; data will always speak for itself.

In Nigeria, this is far from reality. Take the case of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical sciences (FPS), we do not have a real-time database of which of our students have benefitted from any kind of funding, what those funding are, to what extent are the funding and the general impact of such on the performance of our students.

This is disheartening for a number of reasons:

1. Our faculties and institutions do not have any metrics for head-to-head comparison with other schools or countries. Our data is our gold, our pride and our selling point. If a fresh student know that in FPS UNN, X% of students gets funding by Y different number of ways, it will alleviate fears, helps in decision making etc.
2. Funding bodies would want to make an assessment of the funding gap in an institution in order to allocate resources. Akin to research question, which is the gap in the science we want to fill. If we tell them that our students are facing financial difficulty, what data do we have to proof it? “Money naa water” is a popular statement from a Nigerian celebrity which means that money is in excess. But even rivers flow from high grounds to lower plains, they understand that resources must have a direction. Data is that potential difference that allows us to maneuver the pathway of money toward needs.
3. Fairness and equity. Social advancement and health mandates that resources must be distributed in such a way that all benefits. Just as in the second point above, data helps us identify students who need the money from those who do not. We all have been there, a few number of students have one to four different scholarships while many others of same or even more potentials are allowed to suffer. How can we even understand this disparity if we do not have a data and a database.

What we are saying in sum is this:

A new era of funding for education in Nigeria is here.  It will not be kind to those who cling to the old order of just sharing money without appropriate documentation. We must understand where our money is going, who it is going to; this is our data, our new oil that will increase societal trust in our systems and attract cognate investment into education and research in Nigeria.

If you are a Nigerian educator in tertiary institutions we can work together to set these systems up and move your faculty or institution upward in the comity of universities.

If you are a Nigerian funding body, understand that the old ship has sailed. We must discuss these in meetings with faculties, request these data before we commit our money to their students or their research.

Let’s deliberately build wealth!