By Terfa Naswem
The member of the House of Representatives for Vandeikya/Konshisha Federal Constituency of Benue State, Rt. Hon Mrs Dorothy Mato advises the federal government to adequately fund research in Nigerian Universities for more and impact-driven discoveries to be made for national progress.
In a statement issued through her media department, Hon Mato said a university is a community of scholars in which teaching and research are bound together by a common core of scholarship. It is a social institution dedicated to teaching, research and public service. Other institutions may be engaged in one of the other of these pursuits, but it is the university that is uniquely charged with the simultaneous performance of all the three.
"Research is indispensable to teaching through its contribution both to the intellectual development of faculty and graduate students, and to the creative environment essential for effective undergraduate instruction. Research is critical to the acquisition of new knowledge and to the achievement of high standards of academic excellence, which together constitute the foundation of a university's public service. A research must stand for advancement of knowledge through scholarly, scientific and creative activity.
"All Nigerian universities are supposed to make a policy for capable undergraduate students, willing post-graduate students and lecturers to explore the frontier of knowledge. The opportunity and financial support for such policy should be provided by the federal government through instructional programmes of the faculties". She said.