By EDITH TSOKAR

The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Abdullahi Ribadu, has urged Nigerian universities to embrace academic entrepreneurship and innovation to produce graduates equipped to drive the nation’s economic growth.

‎‎Ribadu made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the International Conference on Academic Entrepreneurship, Knowledge and Technology Transfer.

The event was organised by the commission in collaboration with German universities and development partners.

‎‎The NUC Boss, represented by Malam Lawal Faruk, Director, Research, Innovation and Information Technology in the commission, said universities across the world were expected to move beyond their traditional roles to becoming creative enterprising and social transformation.‎

He said that the future of higher education depended on its ability to prepare graduates for a rapidly changing world through the acquisition of entrepreneurial, digital and critical-thinking skills.

He noted that this conviction informed the development and implementation of the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), which emphasised learner-centred and competency-based education.

‎“The framework seeks to equip students not only with disciplinary knowledge but also with entrepreneurial skills, digital competencies, critical thinking and adaptability required in today’s workplace,” he said.

‎‎Ribadu stressed the need to strengthen collaboration between universities and industry, noting that the success of modern universities would be measured by their ability to transform ideas into innovation and research into societal impact.

‎‎He said achieving this goal required stronger partnerships among academia, government, industry and innovators, and institutional cultures that encourage creativity and reward innovation.‎

‎The executive secretary noted that NUC’s collaboration with institutions in Germany demonstrated the importance of international partnerships in building innovation ecosystems capable of enhancing global competitiveness while addressing local and national challenges.

Also ‎‎speaking, Chris Vilas-Mote, Programme Officer at the German Academic Exchange Service Regional Office in Ghana, said the organisation remained committed to supporting partnerships between Germany and Nigeria in education, research and innovation.

‎‎Vilas-Mote said Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdirnst (DAAD) was one of the world’s largest scholarship organisations that supported university collaborations, scholarships and innovation initiatives aimed at empowering young researchers and entrepreneurs.

‎‎He cited the Falling Walls Lab competition as one of the organisation’s platforms for identifying and supporting innovative ideas among students and researchers.‎

He said that many Nigerian students already possessed entrepreneurial mindsets but required greater institutional support to transform their ideas into sustainable enterprises.

‎In a keynote presentation, Prof. Harald Von Korflesch of the University of Koblenz, advocated a more structured approach to building entrepreneurial universities. ‎

‎He said universities must move beyond offering entrepreneurship courses to embedding entrepreneurship at the core of their institutional ecosystems through professional mentorship, industry linkages, innovation support structures and technology commercialisation.

‎‎Von Korflesch noted that while many universities were making progress in entrepreneurship education, greater efforts were needed to convert research outputs into viable businesses and startups capable of generating jobs and economic value.‎

‎He emphasised the importance of strengthening knowledge and technology transfer mechanisms to ensure that research conducted in universities contributes directly to national development and industrial growth.

‎‎The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference brought together university administrators, researchers, policymakers, development agencies and international partners.

‎‎The conference explores strategies for advancing entrepreneurship, innovation and technology transfer in higher education institutions. (NAN)