TOWARDS A SHARED OWNERSHIP OF OSELUX AND THE INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Patrick Oseloka EZEPUE, PhD

User-Centred Research and Design, Statistics, Business Analytics, Stochastic Modelling in Business and Finance, Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing, The Digital Economy AfriWorld Higher Education and Research Observatory, UK | Oselux Analytics Limited

PREAMBLE?

From time to time, you'll see us reflect on where we are coming from and going to in Oselux. We believe in genuine 'employee ownership' of Oselux entities, for want of a better expression, since we truly don't have employees in Oselux. We just have co-creators and sharers of the Oselux Cake, based on the Oselux Vision, 'To Transform and Democratize Global Education And Change'. Please, see the full vision at https://afriworldpublishing.com/philosophy. 'To Democratize' means making the affordances of the Vision affordable to all global citizens and enabling staff to co-own the Oselux ecosystem of digital platforms at https://linktr.ee/ssgsacademy. This article simply outlines the distinctive features of what is arguably the most innovative kind of academic enterprise led globally today by Oselux and these platforms, including an avant-garde university system, The International Graduate Open University, currently in beta form and still under construction at https://icred7e.com.

KEY TERMS:

Employee Ownership; Oselux Vision; Global Corporate Academics and Students as Spirit-Beings; Change Masters; RIAT Fabric; CfAEDs; SSGS Academy; Corporate Academic Play and Performance; Exceptional Professionalism; Profitable Growth; The International Open University (TIOU); 7Es of Education and Human Development; Oselux Reverse Pedagogy; 7E-Based Academic Entrepreneurship; Oselux-TIOU as Tao of Full-Spectrum RIAT Excellence and High Global Q-Helix Impact; The Corporate Academic Model

THE MAIN PLAY

The above university has a phalanx of affiliate universities around the world which harbour its undergraduate XTech degrees like BATechs and BScTechs, possibly extended to graduate XTech degrees like MATechs, MScTechs and PhDTechs, which are the principal businesses of the open university. Why Techs? For the first time, we have in our hands a university system that produces terrific graduates who combine the best suite of technical disciplinary, complementary business, and personal development skills ever cloned into graduates, turning them into spirit-beings who can effortlessly create digital firms or add the most values to employer organisations, across academia, public services, industry sectors, and wider societies (the Global Q-Helix).

The academics that nurture these skills in them are themselves far from being traditional academics. They are Global Corporate Academics who, just for comparisons, are such that a Full RIAT Professor in the university is in publications, practice and impact, worth at least ten traditional professors, irrespective of the universities the latter come from. The RIAT Fabric in higher education refers to Research, Integration of Knowledge, Applications and Teaching. To sense the full flavour of Global Corporate Academicism, please see Ezepue (2018) Secrets of the Masters: Model-Based Hyper-Performance in the Corporate Academic Business of Life, Journal of the Nigerian Association of Mathematical Physics. You can access this paper in my ResearchGate Profile at https://linktr.ee/ssgsaacademy.

Why should all academics, especially in developing countries, learn the RIAT masteries that will enable them to become RIAT lecturers, associate professors and professors? Just ask yourself why we need traditional academics when thousands of them publish papers, teach and supervise students for decades in these climes, yet the countries remain underdeveloped several decades after independence, in the case of Nigeria, some sixty-three (63) years of so-called independence. Hence, traditional academia as currently enacted has passed its sell-by date. This factoid mandates a ruthless transformation of the academic enterprise into global corporate academia, with Global Corporate Academics as Change Masters.?

THE ROLE OF DEPARTMENTAL CENTRES FOR THE APPLICATIONS OF EVERY DISCIPLINE (CfAEDs)?IN BAKING THE OSELUX CAKE

We've written many articles on how all knowledge workers - academics, students, graduates, professionals and policy makers - collaborate in these specialists centres, using combined knowledge of the concepts learned in different disciplines and related Skills for Students Graduates and Start-Ups (SSGS Academy) know-hows, to produce the affordances of the Oselux Vision. Please, read these articles in the LinkedIn, Medium and ResearchGate profiles at https://linktr.ee/ssgsacademy.?

SOME ILLUMINATING QUOTES

I recall the following quotes on p. 21 of Jeff Gates (1998)'s The Ownership Solution: Towards a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. Penguin.

'Today, more than ever before in the history of mankind, everything is interrelated. Therefore the values and the prospects of contemporary civilization are everywhere subjected to great tests' - Vaclav Havel, Former President of the Czech Republic.

'One of today's most profound tests - morally, economically and socially - is whether global capitalism can be coaxed to create more haves and fewer have-nots. That, in turn, may well determine the fate of democracy - which will never realise its full potential until based on an economically just foundation in which it's constituents are full participants, not simply wage earners and occasional voters [in matters regarding their national socio-economic development and financial performance of corporations they serve (emphasis mine)]' - Jeff Gates

WHAT DO THESE VIEWS MEAN FOR OSELUX??

Let's recall the Oselux Vision at https://afriworldpublishing.com/philosophy.

'To live a Spirit-filled, Project-based Life, Transforming and Democratizing Global Education and Change, By Upskilling Global Citizens, Creating Innovative Products and Services, Firms, Wealth, Jobs, Enhancing the Peace, Joy and Happiness of Individuals, Teams, Organizations and Countries and? Continents, and Publishing the Ideas Through Multimedia Channels Across Academia, Government Departments, Industry Sectors and Wider Society'.

Isn't it clear that someone who lives a truly Spirit-filled life must think as well about others as themselves? About how to enable others to equitably participate in producing the affordances in this Vision and benefit from the affordances as selflessly innovative capitalists? This is why in Oselux we insist that all who engage in the wealth-creating projects should be co-owners of the fruits of their labour and rewarded according to what they bring to the table.?

Hence, in our conception of how best to reward RIAT Professors in The International Open University (TIOU), https://icred7e.com, for example, whilst there is a common spine of their earnings per rank, there are a possibly bigger rewards or bonuses that they take home, proportionate to their Corporate Academic Performance. This performance embraces financial and non-financial contributions to the Profitable Growth of their Graduate Schools.

It's, therefore, interesting to have a university in which all staff participate actively in CfAED-like activities, including the Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor Designates, who are hands-on RIAT Professors in graduate schools that are amenable to their Research, Integration of Knowledge, Applications and Teaching (RIAT) interests. These remarks apply to all staff of Oselux-TIOU. As we progress work in these twin entities which we fondly refer to as The Tao of RIAT Excellence and Global Q-Helix Impact or simply The OSELUX-TIOU Entanglement, we'll adjudicate the balance of these performance-based rewards, working hand-in-hand with the Vice-Chairman Culture and Human Development in Oselux and the Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Governing Council of TIOU.

THE CHARACTER OF A RIAT ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINED IN OSELUX AND THE INTERNATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

As has been communicated relentlessly in several social media articles and ResearchGate preprints, we summarise the character of a RIAT Academic or Professional as follows.

• They master the tenets of Global Corporate Academicism, Excellence and Impact that flow from deeply original work in Research, Integration of Knowledge, Applications and Teaching, fondly called the RIAT Ensemble or RIAT Fabric in corporate academic lingo
• Can be based directly in higher educational institutions, industry sectors, public services or wider society like NGOs, head or participate in community initiatives, but be able to demonstrate Exceptional Professionalism, preferably by having a commanding knowledge of Oselux 7Es of Education and Human Development, namely Expertise, Experience, Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Development, Employability, Emotional Intelligence, and Execution. Also, through mastery of different professional standards such as UK Professional Standards which has equivalents in other countries, European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), at least the services aspects of Six-Sigma Methodology for Total Quality Management (TQM), linked to Kaizen, Lean Management, and a plethora of Quality Standards, ultimately able to select the combinations appropriate to their kens
• Aspires to be a consummate 7E Practitioners at https://glotress.co.uk and https://duicrehud.com, later at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development in The International Open University
• Masters what is arguably the best framework globally for designing and Implementing research-based projects, the Oselux Research Methods Canvas, see https://afriworldpublishing.com/philosophy
• Hence, learns to structure excellent and high-impact (graduate) research topics that potentially make more than thirty contributions to knowledge, instead of typically five in traditional higher education
• Additionally learns to write best-in-class proposals for grants by deploying a related framework for writing such proposals, Oselux Concept Notes for Developing Powerful Research Topics and Project Proposals. This framework contains the core essences of the Research Methods Canvas within a layered story, by way of a 15-row matrix of how an holistic change-setting proposal is written. It therefore breathes some aspects of what is known in Global Corporate Academicism as Full-Spectrum RIAT Excellence and Global Q-Helix Impact. Proposals written with this framework have a hit rate of 6 in 10, conservatively speaking, compared to a global average of 1 in 10. The very time it was used by Professors Ezepue and Uro-Chukwu at Coal City University, Enugu, Nigeria, they won the proposal. Professor Ezepue had previously used it to secure numerous projects across the RIAT Fabric.
• Masters our Oselux Common Standards for Writing Highly Publishable Papers and uses it to produce stellar academic and professional publications which, again, make seven key contributions to knowledge and another twenty-four contributions that beam RIAT findings onto the Global Q-Helix - academia, public services, industry sectors, and wider society
• Continually pursues Full-Spectrum RIAT Excellence and Global Q-Helix Impact, by mastering at least the following mutually reinforcing capabilities
• The Corporate Academic Research and Enterprise Development Philosophy?
• User-Centred Research and Design
• Integrated Business Analytics and Development?
• 7Es of Education and Human Development?
• Skills in impacting local, national, continental and national Q-Helixes - academia, public services, industry sectors, and wider society - using innovative ideas across the RIAT Fabric?
• A selection of Skills for Students Graduates and Start-Ups which we publish on regularly and teach in our SSGS Academies
• Becomes a Global Corporate Academic who are competent in enough of these capacities and their orchestrations within three domains of the Corporate Academic Model explored in Ezepue (2018)'s Secrets of the Masters: Model-Based Hyper-Performance in the Corporate-Academic Business of Life, Journal of the Nigerian Association of Mathematical Physics. These domains are the Primary Research Domain (PRD), the Primary Application Domains (PADs) and the General Cultural Literacy (GCL)
• Becomes a Platform Global Corporate Academic by being able to use their skills to build suitable platforms that address well-selected problems that affect thousands, millions and possibly billions of people in different levels of the Global Q-Helix. A default platform is their personal websites which they can construct to reflect these realities of successful Corporate Academic Play
• In their lives as Corporate Academics and Professionals, can work with other colleagues and learners like XTech students and visiting Q-Helix Experts, in specially designed Centres for the Applications of Every Discipline (CfAEDs) such that?
• At least 40% of students and their supervisors discover and implement patents before the students graduate and understand how the patents address the Human Condition across the Global Q-Helix
• All learners are drilled in Oselux Reverse Pedagogy, arguably the world's best Teaching, Learning and Assessments (TLA) system
• All Global Corporate Academics (co)write at least 12 grants a year, roughly one each month, working with colleagues and? learners in each CfAED
• All learners master the Craft of Best-in-Class Research and Publishing, based on these ideas, at AfriWorld Publishing, https://afriworldpublishing.com
• Indeed, all academics and learners become Academic Entrepreneurs and master 7E-Based Academic Entrepreneurship, which enables them to prefer to set up their own businesses rather than become 9-5 or 8-4 employees. If they choose to become employed, then they operate as inimitable intrapreneurs
• All RIAT academics, therefore, learn to generate at least 5 times their salaries each year and are remunerated differentially for that capacity, beyond a common spine of payments that all people in the same rank receive. For example, a RIAT Professor or Professional that generates 10 times their annual salaries receives performance-based bonuses at The International Open University and related Oselux platforms, that reflect this difference
• On average, a smart RIAT Scholar or Professional trained to the teeth in Global Corporate Academicism, is potentially able to generate sometimes more than 10 times the publications and 100 times the incomes that a traditional colleague does in other institutions. They are literally a cross between Harvard-Stanford-MIT Senior Professors and Top Investment Bankers, with an alluring difference - they are not just these professors through Research only, but also through distinctive professor-class capacities in the entire RIAT Ensemble. In sum, they are Full-Spectrum RIAT Excellent.
• Summing up so far, a RIAT Professor is a Master of the game of Full-Spectrum RIAT Excellence and Global Q-Helix Impact in some 12 Pillars of Excellence and lots of capacities mainstreamed in Oselux and partner universities, see Ezepue (2021) Higher Education Research-Teaching Excellence Programmes: Innovations in Research, Teaching, Integration of Knowledge, Applications and Enterprise Development in Nigeria, Africa, Developing Countries and Globally, developed for our Oselux platform, The International Centre for Research and Human Development, Dominican University Ibadan, Oyo, State, Nigeria, a document that encompasses 139 core RIAT activities that totally transform all lecturers in a university or polytechnic to Global Corporate Academics (GCAs) and at the very top of their games, Platform Global Corporate Academics (PGCAs).
• It costs about ￡10,000 to undergo PGCA training in a one-year intensive programme. The reward is not less than ￡30,000 enhanced earnings in a year, part of which is realised whilst already on the programme. From January 2024, the one-year short course and six-month intensive version will be rolled out under our Oselux Glotress platform at https://glotress.co.uk.?

CONCLUSION

In summary, Global Corporate Academics are drilled in all the above capacities, whilst relentlessly immersed in myriad Oselux projects which use related skills in their roles as Full-Spectrum RIAT Scholars and Professionals, who operate Ezepue (2018)’s Corporate Academic Model in fulfilling the Oselux Vision, again see https://afriworldpublishing.com/philosophy. The above-mentioned Corporate Academic competences are reinforced by Personalised Signature Dripping-T Models which each the academics are helped to construct, for mobilising related User-Centred Research and Design as well as 7E Project Execution skills, combinations of skills that are unsurpassed in no corner of the world today and not likely to be surpassed for a very long time. The following visual describes the Oselux Ecosystem of digital educational platforms which reinforce the International Open University and engender different activities we engage in from this year onwards.

The following Word Cloud contains the foundational concepts that underpin Global Corporate Academicism, a teachable version of Academic Entrepreneurship which defines what we do in Oselux.

Join the conversation on our different platforms and check out forthcoming events at https://linktr.ee/ssgsacademy.

Also checkout our World-Leading Masterclasses by Skills for Students, Graduates and Start-Ups Academy by downloading the below PDF with detailed schedule and registration information. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to enhance your skills: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D35eV5F3X5TUvR8NciILlE9AqPZh2JV6/view