My Undergraduate Research and Social Impact Projects

My First Research Project in First Year on 'Substantiating Research Methodologies in Social Science

Issue: Student Hustle

Summary:

Student Welfare Survey Questionnaire about the Contemporary Challenge of “Student Hustle”

A. Hypothesis & Description: The survey was carried out by applying the survey pattern displayed below as a method of empiricism collecting data on the observed or discovered challenge termed Student Hustle. The coined term Student Hustle is the physical struggle, strife, scramble and discomfort suffered by students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in their bid to attend classes and participate in lectures/ teaching and learning activities.

B. Hypothesis: The observed problem attracted suggestions and explanations including:

ROOT CAUSE:

The underperforming and abysmal condition of educational facilities on my campus, UNN, is one of the many culminations of the poor investment and funding of education in Nigeria. It is a strand in the deep-rooted and agelong problem of negligent interest in the Nigerian educational sector that has hunted and threatened generations of students hitherto. It is a problem that demands the active involvement of every student belonging to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria as a student currently situated in the University of Nigeria campus, and as a member of the University of Nigerian Medical Student Association (UNMSA), it is a problem I hope to address.

AGENCY:

Academic Staff of Universities in Nigeria (ASUU): represents and protects the interests of its members by persuading cooperation of the Nigerian government towards revitalizing the educational sector and development of Nigerian universities.

University of Nigeria Medical Student Association (UNMSA): The medical student body on campus in charge of student welfare.

And the many concerted efforts of citizens, students and staff unions, academic institutions, pressure groups, and the Nigerian government to arrest

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF STUDENT HUSTLE:

· Overpopulation of students due to an abnormal admission rate.

· Inadequate amenities to adequately support the influx of students.

CONSEQUENCES:

· Poor performance, participation and proficiency of students academically

· Demoralization of Lecturers and Students

· Intellectual doldrum

· Deficient assimilation and proper interaction between students and lecturers

SOLUTION:

· Display composure, responsibility, culture and honesty on the student’s part.

· Provision of adequate facilities for effective and practical teaching and learning conditions and theatre buildings to accommodate the population of students.

Quantitative Data and Survey Distribution:

Root Cause Analysis:

Development question: How can an optimal academic environment and better standard and facilities of education be maximized at the University of Nigeria (UNN) to achieve maximum student welfare?

Treatise on the 2020 ASUU Strike (Mission and Vision Statement):

The many federal universities in Nigeria have been under the siege of underdevelopment, national neglect and poor funding to date. I am convinced this is more than mere inconvenience to the over 1.2 million students in federal universities in Nigeria who are currently at home over conflicts on the importance of education in the country between the Nigerian government and pressure groups like ASUU.

The Academic Staff of Universities in Nigeria (ASUU) takes drastic measures like incessant strike actions that collapse academic activities in Nigeria at the expense of students whose academic and professional progress is impeded.

This problem has stagnated the intellectual growth and empowerment of Nigerian students like myself such that the dreams, passion and goals of students who are poised to leave long-lasting signatures across the world are disregarded and underutilized.

Indeed, it is a complex national problem that affects the socioeconomic, medical, industrial, scientific and technological growth of the nation and contributes to the massive brain drain in Nigeria.

It is also a personal problem to us, the University of Nigeria Medical Student Association at the grass root, and one I am very passionate about.

At UNMSA, we are intentional about being heirs of the globalized and digital era of the 21st century where the measure of a state’s global world power lies in the premium of its educational system and a time where the underpinnings of solid education are an element of communication, critical thinking, writing, and creativity, or a weapon of ingenuity, empiricism, invention. We pursue intelligence against the backdrop of a world rapidly evolving with the overlap of arts and the unquenchable cornerstones and curiosity of science and technology and by united efforts, sensitize ourselves on the dynamism of education.

We struggle to not only organize tutorials and sessions for free to assist the academic performance of medical students, aiming to introduce a contemporary context that supplements the school curriculum.

By littlest contributions and selfless voluntary skills and human avail electronic study materials,

textbooks, and virtual study clubs and platforms on Whatsapp, Telegram and Facebook for the active academic/social interaction of students and members; we endeavour to empower ourselves with adequate knowledge of the workings of the world. I have written a term paper that addresses and redresses the poor remuneration of lecturers in Nigerian universities which is another offshoot of the identified root cause of student hustle: Poor national funding of education.

Treatise on the 2022 ASUU Strike

Sadly, two years after the nine-month-long 2020 strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, this is still the norm:

... A good example of resource curse currently playing out in Nigeria is the ASUU and Federal Government conflict over the funding of education in Nigeria. ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) is a trade union popular to every student in public Federal universities because it represents and protects the interests of its members by ensuring educational development in Nigerian universities and majorly because of the perennial industrial strikes actions, dating back to 1999, that have been used to persuade cooperation of the Nigerian government in the revitalization of the nation’s educational sector. The whooping population of 1.2 million students (Statistica, 2019) in federal universities in Nigeria are currently at home over conflicts of the importance of Nigeria education in the country; talk more about the salaries of lecturers, the miserly salaries of ASUU members in the face of spiral inflation over the years, the decayed infrastructures, the lack of equipment and facilities in universities, According to ASUU, there will be no resumption in public universities until the renegotiated 2009 agreement is implemented and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) platform is deployed. The government is owing its members 12 years of earned academic allowances and they have been 13 years on an old salary; meanwhile, political appointees and elected people in government enjoy the periodic review of their allowances and salaries. The 2009 agreement stipulates the welfare package for lecturers, their entitlements, and how their salaries should be reviewed from time to time, among others. Their salaries are just too poor yet the Federal Government owes them earned allowances... (You can get the rest in the document attached below)

POOR REMUNERATION OF LECTURERS IN NIGERIA (1).docx

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