Theophilus Ugah: How Nigeria’s Education System Can Keep Pace with Future of Work
As the world grapples with a rapidly changing job market, Nigeria’s education system is at a critical juncture. With technological advancements and shifting industry demands, universities and institutions must adapt to produce graduates who are equipped to thrive in the future of work. In this interview with Mary Nnah, the Vice-Chancellor of Highstone Global University,Theophilus Aku Ugah shared his expertise on how the country’s education system can be reimagined to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving job market. He stressed the need for a paradigm shift in teaching and learning; the importance of industry-academia collaboration; and the role of technology in shaping the future of education
What informed your interest in academia after a successful career in the oil sector?
My transition into academia was not a departure from industry, but a continuation of purpose. After decades in the oil and gas sector, working across operations, Health, Environment and Safety (HES), project execution, and leadership, I became increasingly aware that many of Africa’s persistent development challenges are fundamentally knowledge, governance and capacity problems.
In Nigeria, I observed brilliant graduates entering the industry without sufficient exposure to applied problem-solving, ethics, systems thinking, or sustainability frameworks. Academia offered a platform to institutionalise lessons learned from real-life engineering failures, safety successes, climate risks, and organisational leadership. Globally, institutions like MIT, Imperial College, and Stanford thrive because industry practitioners actively shape teaching and research. I was motivated to replicate that model, particularly for Africa, by building academic systems that produce solution-oriented graduates, not just certificate holders.
How has your experience in the oil industry helped your present position?
The oil industry is one of the most structured, risk-sensitive, and performance-driven sectors in the world. My experience instilled discipline in systems thinking, data-driven decision-making, stakeholder management, and regulatory compliance. These competencies translate directly into university leadership. For example, process safety principles now inform our institutional risk management and quality assurance systems at Highstone Global University (HGU). Project management skills developed on multi-million-dollar energy projects are applied in curriculum rollout, digital infrastructure deployment, and international partnerships. In Africa, universities often struggle with execution; industry experience helps bridge the gap between strategy and delivery.
What sets your university apart in Nigeria’s higher education landscape?
Highstone Global University is intentionally designed as a globally networked, digitally native, industry-aligned institution. Unlike traditional universities that emphasise physical infrastructure over learning outcomes, HGU prioritises access, relevance, and future readiness.
Our programmes integrate climate change, sustainability, entrepreneurship, AI literacy, and global competencies across disciplines. For instance, environmental management students engage with real Nigerian case studies, oil spill remediation in the Niger Delta, waste governance in Lagos, and desertification in the north, while benchmarking against global best practices. Furthermore, our governance model reflects international accreditation frameworks, ensuring that Nigerian students earn qualifications that are globally competitive, portable and respected.
What is the impact of university students prioritising phones over academics, and how can they get back on track?
Mobile technology is not the enemy; unstructured consumption is. Excessive social media use erodes attention span, deep reading capacity, and reflective thinking. In Nigeria and across Africa, we see students more familiar with trending content than foundational academic concepts. The solution is intentional digital discipline. Institutions must teach digital literacy, not just allow device usage. At HGU, we integrate phones into learning through micro-learning, academic discussion forums, research alerts, and virtual labs. Students must shift from being consumers of content to producers of knowledge, using the same devices for research, collaboration and innovation.
How do you foster industry-academic collaboration, given your corporate experience?
Industry collaboration thrives on trust, relevance and mutual value. My corporate background enables direct engagement with industry leaders in energy, environment, technology and consulting. We design curricula with industry input, invite practitioners to serve as adjunct faculty, and align research with real operational challenges, such as climate risk disclosure, ESG reporting, and renewable energy integration. In Nigeria, partnerships with consulting firms, non-governmental organisations, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) provide internship pipelines, while globally we leverage professional networks for joint research and executive education.
What is your take on brain drain in Nigeria, and how can it be addressed?
Brain drain is a symptom, not the disease. The real issues are limited opportunities, weak research ecosystems, and poor institutional support. Nigerians excel globally because of their resilience capacity and adaptability, not because they left home.
Our response is brain circulation. Through online and hybrid models, we engage Nigerian professionals in the diaspora as faculty, mentors, and collaborators without requiring permanent relocation. Students gain global exposure while remaining locally grounded. Africa does not need to stop mobility; it needs to convert mobility into a national and continental advantage. Africa holds the rare knowledge currency that will liberate the world, but the resources to fully explore and deploy these vast human resources are grossly limited.
How do you leverage international partnerships to promote academic programmes?
International partnerships are not ceremonial – they must be functional. At HGU, partnerships focus on curriculum co-development, faculty exchange, joint research and dual certification pathways. For instance, climate change and sustainability programmes that draw from global frameworks such as IPCC, UN SDGs, and IRENA, while contextualising them for African realities. These partnerships enhance credibility, attract international faculty and ensure that our students compete effectively in global labour and research markets.
Given Nigeria’s challenging job market, is university education still worthwhile? How can students maximise their value?
University education remains essential, but only if approached strategically. The era when a degree automatically guaranteed employment is over globally. Education must now build capability, adaptability and value creation. Students must combine academic learning with digital skills, entrepreneurship, internships and problem-solving projects. For instance, a graduate who understands environmental policy and data analytics is far more employable than one with theory alone. Universities must therefore act as talent accelerators, not certificate factories.
How does your institution foster collaboration with Nigerian industries to establish job opportunities?
We engage Nigerian industries through needs-based programme design, professional certification pathways and applied research. Industry partners contribute to curriculum review, guest lectures, and student assessment. Additionally, we support students in building portfolios, consulting reports, data dashboards, and sustainability audits that employers can immediately evaluate. This practical orientation increases employability and encourages industries to see universities as solution partners rather than just talent suppliers.
How can students balance leveraging AI tools while ensuring real understanding and critical thinking?
AI should be treated as an intellectual amplifier, not a cognitive replacement. Students must first understand concepts before using AI to refine, test or expand their thinking. AI is rapidly creating a borderless global e-learning campus, bringing knowledge to learners’ doorsteps through a vast e-library platform, rather than having learners chase analogue information databases. At HGU, we teach AI ethics, prompt engineering, and verification skills. Students are required to explain outputs, challenge assumptions and cross-check sources. Globally, the most competitive graduates will be those who can work with AI, ask better questions, make informed judgments, and apply insights responsibly.
How is your institution incorporating climate change into its curriculum and research agenda?
At Highstone Global University, climate change is mainstreamed across teaching, research and innovation, rather than treated as a standalone topic. On the curriculum side, we embed climate change content across disciplines such as engineering, environmental management, public policy, health sciences, entrepreneurship and data analytics. For instance, our Environmental Management and Sustainability programmes integrate climate science, climate risk assessment, mitigation, adaptation, and climate finance.
The Engineering and energy-focused courses emphasise renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, climate-resilient infrastructure, and life-cycle assessment. At the postgraduate and PhD levels, we require applied climate research, often linked to real-world African and Nigerian challenges such as flooding, desertification, air pollution, and energy poverty.
From a research perspective, HGU prioritises the following: climate risk management systems, renewable and alternative energy technologies, climate-smart agriculture, and water resources management. Others are environmental health and climate-induced disease burdens, climate policy, governance and sustainability transitions.
Importantly, our research agenda is problem-driven, aligned with the UN SDGs, IPCC frameworks, and Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). We actively encourage interdisciplinary and solution-oriented research, ensuring that academic outputs translate into policy briefs, pilot projects, and community impact.
Any initiative by the university to address climate change challenges in Nigeria?
Yes, our approach combines knowledge generation, capacity building, and community engagement. Key initiatives include climate literacy and professional training programmes for students, public servants, faith-based organisations, and community leaders, focusing on adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction.
Through academic collaborations and outreach, HGU supports community-based adaptation strategies, particularly in flood-prone and environmentally stressed regions, and policy-relevant research outputs that can inform government agencies, NGOs, and development partners. Youth-driven climate innovation, encouraging Nigerian students to develop scalable solutions in renewable energy, waste recycling, and environmental monitoring.
As an engineer, what are your views on the future of renewable energy in Nigeria?
From an engineering standpoint, Nigeria’s renewable energy future is inevitable, strategic and overdue. Nigeria possesses abundant renewable resources, solar, wind, biomass, and small hydropower, yet remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels and diesel generators. This is economically inefficient, environmentally unsustainable, and socially inequitable.
I see the future unfolding in three clear directions, including decentralised renewable energy systems. Here, solar mini-grids and hybrid systems will dominate rural and peri-urban electrification, reducing reliance on the national grid and diesel generators. Another direction is the hybrid energy solutions. In this case, Nigeria will increasingly adopt solar-gas, solar-battery, and renewable-storage hybrids, ensuring reliability while lowering emissions.
Lastly, there is the local capacity and innovation. Beyond importing technology, Nigeria should build local engineering capacity, manufacturing, maintenance expertise, and policy stability. Universities like HGU play a critical role by training engineers and energy professionals who understand both technology and context, from system design to policy, financing, and environmental safeguards. Renewable energy is not just about power; it is about economic resilience, job creation, climate action, and national security.
In what ways can the university’s research and innovation contribute to effective waste management solutions in Nigeria?
Effective waste management in Nigeria requires data-driven, technology-enabled, and behavior-informed solutions, and universities are central to this transformation. At HGU, our contribution focuses on four pillars: applied research and data analytics; waste-to-value innovation; policy and governance support; and community-focused solutions.
Ultimately, universities must act as innovation hubs and neutral knowledge brokers, bridging science, policy, industry, and communities. That is the role we are intentionally playing at Highstone Global University. At HGU, climate change, renewable energy, and environmental sustainability are not abstract concepts; they are development imperatives. Our collective drive is to ensure a sound academic footing with responsibility to deliver knowledge with impact, particularly for countries like Nigeria facing urgent environmental and energy transitions.
Nigerian and African governments have initiated several ambitious and great climate action programmes, but the drawbacks have been a lack of political will, a lack of continuity in policy execution, inadequate infrastructure, budget deficiency, misplaced priorities and in some cases, politicisation of such sensitive matters relating to climate ecosystems, which have extended and catastrophic impacts on biodiversity. Climate change impacts transcend tribe, religion, and partisan boundaries and must be treated as such – an emergency requiring total action from all sectors and divides of our polity.
