Defense of dissertations: The ordeal of students

From yesterday to today, everything suggests that some departments of the University of Abomey Calavi are frozen in time, indifferent to technological change and youth issues. Evidenced by the movement of mood of the students of the department of letters of this institution who demand the cancellation of the defense of the memory.

In the last news, students of the Faculty of Letters, Arts et Communication (FLLAC) of the University of Abomey Calavi suspended their strike this Monday, 27 mars 2023 to give chances to negotiations. They had launched a walkout movement to demand, among others, the cancellation of license theses defenses and the recruitment of teachers. If commitments have been made for the recruitment of trainers, it nevertheless remains the main point of concern for learners, namely the cancellation of defenses.

The question of defense in this faculty is not new and it has remained the same. J. L. Ahmed is a former student of what was then called Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities (FLASH). This entity brought together several departments including those of sociology, philosophy, modern literature, linguistics and history-geography.

Ahmed recalls that after successfully completing his fourth grade exam, he was happy that he only had to defend his dissertation to be awarded the Master’s degree. It took him badly because he ended up losing more than 3 years of his life “writing” the famous document. In fact, he explains, at the time, about thirty years ago, the teachers were like gods on campus. When you give them your manuscript, they could keep him for more than six months and beware if you risk calling them, even though there were no cell phones.

After almost three years of always disappointed hopes, his professor finally gave him verbal authorization to finalize and submit the dissertation. More, great was his disappointment that the long-awaited day of the defense, his master who obviously never read the document, attacks him in front of the jury and the family, complaining that he was in too much of a hurry and was just pushing him.

Three decades later, students of the same faculty, who only changed his name, are still facing the same problem. At the time, students who had the means would enroll in Lomé where there was no dissertation defense in most faculties.

Why maintain a system that, visibly, has difficulty being controlled if it means sacrificing the future of young people? The whole question of the relevance of today's students' claim is there. The strike they initiated has been suspended but the question remains unanswered, the authorities are not ready to give in.

But so as not to waste precious years of young people who only want to finish looking for work, it is important to give in to demands or to create the conditions so that just at the end of their third year they can move on to the defense. After all, schools at the same university do it, just like private universities.

Damien TOLOMISSI