Ajienka in his paper titled, “Research As Enterprise: Building Innovation, Commercialization, Entrepreneurship (ICE) Ecosystem” said Nigerian tertiary institutions are not ranked high among other universities across the world because of the lukewarm attitude of Nigerian scholars towards translating research works into innovation.

Speaking at a one-day conference organised by the Nigerian Defence Academy, the former VC said that 90 percent of indicator to rank universities is based on research.

“Havard University among other universities is 36 billion dollars richer than a country because it has placed importance on translating its research work into products and services.

“Research institutions must be extremely collaborative, globally recognised and strategically relevant because they are the engine that transforms the economy of a country and creates jobs for the teeming youth.”

Ajienka, therefore, advised Nigerian Universities to embrace the culture of innovation, commercialization, entrepreneurship and knowledge value chain development.

More Universities to be established

Meanwhile, the National Universities Commission, NUC has hinted about the establishment of 292 new private universities in Nigeria.

The executive secretary of Nigeria’s National Universities Commission, Abdul Rasheed Abubakar said that the NUC was processing 292 applications from institutions that hope to become private universities.