G-ASHelen Orientations

By Wole Soyinka for thehighereducation.com A few years ago, I had reached the stage of despair over the deterioration of the university system in my own country, Nigeria, under successive regimes of both civilian and military orders. Even the basic, campus social life had broken down, a condition that I tried to summarise in the title of a public lecture that went: “Descent of barbarism and end of the collegial”. Educational standards had plummeted so low that the word “illiteracy” had become current within – not only outside – the ivory towers, leading Unesco to classify Nigeria as one of the nine countries that together accounted for 70 per cent of the globe’s illiterate population. We do not need to be reminded that primary and secondary education form the base material for the intellectual quality of intakes into the tertiary institution. When deterioration in those two tiers is compounded by the fact that those tertiaries indulged in any excuse to foment strikes by facul...

The essence of this period of your life on campus is to acquire knowledge in a directed and intentional manner about certain personalities and some concepts that are paramount to life. In addition to your discipline knowledge that would directly get you a job back in society, you must be 60% focus on acquiring those ones that will help you stay relevant in your job after you might have gotten or established one. So, your focus should be on the following: GOD There are so many things that worth-knowing about in the universe, but none has the benefits of knowing God – who by himself is the universe, with whom all things started and will end with. He is the major Actor in the play presenting on the stage called Earth, while our appearance in the play, which is never by chance, nor coincidence, but intentional, is to play a short important minor roles towards a happy ending expected of the play. Therefore, as actors and actresses, it is expected of us to have a proper knowledg...