Where is the final destination of a thesis in Nigeria? Does it rot in a decaying library of a tertiary institution where no one cares to find it? Or does it end up in a dumpsite where a local trader picks it and uses its papers to wrap commodities?
After a minimum of four years studying in Nigerian universities or polytechnics, many graduates have wondered whether the public has benefited from their research, with little to no answers. Research projects are crucial for final-year students to complete their studies in Nigeria.
When a final-year student is attached to a lecturer for supervision and guidance to facilitate the selection of a research topic, the process is rigorous, with the supervisor mentoring to ensure that the student’s work is original, well-edited, properly cited, and free of plagiarism. The supervisor also provides feedback and guidance on the research methodology, data collection, and analysis until the student submits a thorough research project.
This tradition has been compromised, and research projects have become less of a meaningful academic exercise. Despite efforts by students and lecturers in tertiary institutions, many research projects failed to serve their purpose, with some ending up trashed.
In 2016, for instance, a social media user, Raphael James, posted a photo of dozens of discarded final-year research projects. He wondered why a supposed ivory tower would discard academic research in such a horrible manner. The social media user, who seemed to be an academic, stressed that a final year should test a student’s research ability. The result of a research work, he said, can be used for further research works either to support it or to disagree with it.
“Most university undergraduates today don’t even bother to do proper research work; they copy from old projects and change the identity of the owners,” he complained. “For a university, an academic institution, to throw away the project findings of her final year students, this is the end of education in Nigeria.”
Funmilayo Abe, a graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), had a similar experience in 2023. She had purchased roasted meat from a street vendor and was shocked to find that a page from a final-year research paper was used to wrap the meat. Funmilayo was left wondering how an academic paper ended with a meat vendor.
“It is disheartening to see students spend a significant amount of money, time, and resources working on academic research projects that end up being rendered useless,” she said. “This is a huge setback for the country’s education system, as research is crucial for driving innovation and progress in all sectors of the economy.”
Enters TETFUND’s TERAS
Amid complaints over the terrible handling of academic papers by tertiary institutions, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervened, creating a digital platform to document research works by final-year students. In October 2023, TETFund unveiled a digital services platform for tertiary institutions called Tertiary Education Research, Applications, and Services (TERAS). It comprises IT infrastructure and services offering computing, storage, and networking to participating institutions.
The platform is also meant to support students’ publication and learning needs through institutional libraries. At the unveiling of the platform in Abuja, Tahir Mamman, Nigeria’s former minister for education, said TERAS is a milestone in the quest to transform the tertiary education sector.
“The technology underpinning TERAS is a testament to the careful expertise in its design and implementation,” he said. “We, at the ministry, are acutely aware of the challenges our education system faces in today’s world.”
In addition, TETFund’s Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, explained that the TERAS platform provides centralised hubs for tertiary educational services, where tertiary institutions, students and researchers can access world-class educational resources, monitor research for plagiarism, and many other educational activities. Some of the technologies captured under the platform, he said, include the Beneficiary Identity Management Service (BIMS), Aggregated Research Journals (EBSO), EagleScan for plagiarism, and Blackboard Learning Management System, among others.
Echono inaugurated the digitisation committee in Abuja, noting that the project was necessitated by the need for a National Academic Research Repository (NARR), given that numerous research outputs were gathering dust in libraries across tertiary institutions in the country.
“The Board of Trustees of TETFund, in a bid to redress the situation, initiated the ‘Digitization of Thesis Project,’ tasking the Executive Secretary with shepherding a centralised mechanism that will form the basis for storing dematerialised academic output in electronic form, federated across all beneficiary institutions of the Fund,” Echono stated.
“Following this mandate, the management approved a consultancy, which conducted various interactive sessions and surveys over nine months to identify how academic output in the form of thesis and other digital resources produced by undergraduate and postgraduate students are stored, handled, and utilised.”
The TETFund chief added that the digitisation project would also address issues such as plagiarism, intellectual property, and the commercialisation of academic works. The scheme would begin in 100 institutions and aim to dematerialise up to two billion pages of research materials.
The TERAS Thesis Repository services offer students and lecturers direct access to millions of high-quality, impactful journals covering the broadest range of interdisciplinary scholarly works. Users of the platforms can browse over 3,300 eBook titles and a portfolio of over 3,000,000 academic materials. They can also access research in academic, corporate, government, public, and school libraries worldwide.
HumAngle explored and found academic research projects by hundreds of undergraduates, digitised and documented via the TERAS platform. One research project, for instance, focused on the challenges of effective secretarial education in a developing economy; another examined the effect of bureaucratic bottlenecks on the performance of secretaries in Radio Kogi, Lokoja; and yet another analysed the prevalence of high blood pressure in Nigeria.
The list is indeed long. However, we noticed that only 520 projects have been archived via the digital platform despite enrolling over two million students across tertiary institutions. The TETFund chief had expressed concern over the lack of utilisation by enrolled students.
“My biggest concern, again, which is also another advantage of MoUs, is not so much availability that people are enrolled. We are interested in the usage. How many students are using all these facilities?” he told journalists during a press conference in Abuja last year.
Qosim Suleiman, an education researcher and alumnus of the Report for the World, commended the digital innovations by TETFund, noting that the initiative has solved a fundamental problem in the tertiary education sector in Nigeria. The researcher added that it is a good development that needs to be upscaled.
“The major problem with this initiative is awareness; many people in the academic sector are not aware of this development, and I think that’s on TETFund to actualise,” he said. “Also, policymakers should pay attention to these projects because the essence of academic research is to make amends in society. But, overall, it is a great development.”
This report is produced as part of the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme, a collaboration between the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-develop.
In Nigeria, many graduates are disheartened as their research projects often end up decaying in libraries or discarded, undermining the value of academic research.
Despite the rigor involved in producing these projects, they often fail to benefit the public or serve their intended purpose, reflected in complaints about their handling by tertiary institutions.
To address this issue, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) introduced the Tertiary Education Research, Applications, and Services (TERAS) platform in October 2023. This digital initiative aims to store, manage, and utilize academic research, offering numerous educational resources while tackling issues like plagiarism and intellectual property.
However, the utilization of the platform remains a concern, with only 520 projects archived despite high enrollment. Users can access millions of high-quality academic materials globally, although awareness of the platform’s existence is lacking within the academic sector.
The platform’s potential to revolutionize tertiary education in Nigeria is recognized, but dissemination and active usage need improvement for the initiative to achieve its full impact.