The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has urged the universities’ management to pay more attention to community service and development.

Oloyede stated this in Ilorin at the maiden conference of the Consortium of Eight Kwara Universities (KU8) held at the main auditorium of the University of Ilorin.

The KU8 are the University of Ilorin, Kwara State University (KWASU), Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Ahmad Pategi University, Ojaja University, Summit University, Offa and Thomas Adewumi University, Oko.

Oloyede, the keynote speaker at the event with the theme ‘Transforming University Education in 21st Century: The Role of Stakeholders’, said, “You cannot design and build a university based on the local community as an outsider. We must become involved in their health, ecology, livelihood and through that add value to their existence.”

He added, “We cannot continue to go on strike incessantly without working on other areas of community needs that would enhance our relevance. Also, we cannot afford to be trailing behind China, Singapore, Malaysia and even South Africa. We must go back to being developmental universities rather than leaches on society.”

Oloyede appealed to the Kwara Universities Consortium to brace up for the challenge of adding value to their host communities to advance the development of University education in the country.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Egbewole, said in response to the need to promote development through cooperation, KU8 was formed at the University of Ilorin on January 11, 2023.

He pointed out that one of the dangers of globalisation was the neglect of self, the immediate, and an obsession with the other, the foreign.

“While many of us have active collaborations with foreign universities, we are complete strangers to our neighbours, whereas international recognition should always be complemented by local relevance,” he explained.

Egbewole urged members of the union to be more committed to their various localities to transform university education in the country.