Training and development of public university academics in Nigeria and sustainable development goals (SDGs)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were initiated as a new chapter in international development and contributed to the use of global goals and the setting of targets as a key tool for defining the international development agenda. Given this growing significance, little is known about how they affect key stakeholder policy preferences, and their wider implications on Universal Primary Education in Nigeria as the second goal (MDG2), which inadvertently neglects secondary and tertiary educations. Domesticating the MDGs and building on the loopholes identified by MDG 2, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced as a broader version of the MDGs. While Goal 2 of the MDGs focuses on achieving Universal Primary Education, Goal 4 of the SDGs addresses quality education across all levels of education. In this regard, this paper focuses on the relationship between the university system and the SDG4. Drawing on data from secondary sources, this paper argues that in order to ensure that the SDGs achieve a remarkable quantum leap in the area of education, the training and development of academics at Nigerian universities must be optimised and prioritised. Relying on the human capital theory, the paper opines that training academics in universities is one of the strategies towards realising Goal 4 of the SDGs. This is because university academics are the major determinants of the quality of academic activities that go on in universities, which are critical to the education system that is in turn a catalyst of development on a sustainable scale.