UK partners with Nigerian Universities on trans-national education
By, Temitope Mustapha, Abuja
Head of UK High Powered delegation on Higher Education and an International education champion, Steve Smith and his team are in Nigeria to develop a long time, sustainable and two-way partnership with Universities Commission and the Nigerian government.
Smith said this at the MOU signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the commission and the British Council in Abuja.
The High Powered UK Government Delegation on Higher Education came to Nigeria on May 16th and will stay till 18th May, 2022.
According to Smith, the gesture would open up academic space for Nigerians in the UK.
Smith said that the partnership would afford a situation where a Nigerian student could have the opportunity to have a UK degree without having to travel to the UK.
Reducing Cost of Study
He noted that the Government of UK are making efforts to reduce the cost of study in the UK while not compromising the quality of the degrees.
Smith stated that the partnership would be a win-win approach that would offer competition and quality across all sector.
” It’s a very strong relationship and we want to take it further. We’re going to do it in a way that deals with the opportunity of having UK degrees without having to travel abroad.
“So it’s a very exciting opportunity to meeting with very positive individuals and we are very happy to have students come to UK to study in increasing numbers. We also want to be able to work with them at the same quality.
“So we don’t want to simply turn up here to say most students should come to the UK. We work a partnership with the NUC, trying to find a way where we can offer UK degrees at a cost, that will enable the families that do not have the money to send their students abroad get the same quality of degrees,” he explained.
The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Rasheed Adamu expressed readiness of Nigeria to deepen relations with the UK on exchange programmes that would boost country’s trans-national education.
Rasheed said that the country would open up discussion on proper training in developing online digital education component that would boost country’s educational sector.
” The National Universities Commission is committed to enhancing access to university education via the Open, Distance and e Learning mode.
“However, as regulatory agency for the Nigerian University System (NUS), the commission shall continue to ensure that the quality of programmes delivered via ODL, E-Learning and that of the Transnational Education in the NUS are not compromised by periodically reviewing quality assurance and policies.
” Without doubt the commission is well disposed to opening up the Nigerian space and thus align with the realities of the 21st century and global best practices in relation to transnational education,” Professir Rasheed explained.
The Executive Secretary said a total of 2,147 million students were enrolled in various institutions at the end of 2021 representing one percent of the population.
Strategic Plan
According to him, we have taken up this challenge and in the last four years, we have developed a strategic plan to reengineer our curriculum.
“We have taken up this exercise and have consulted over 1000 academics in reengineering the curriculum. We have worked closely with industries to give input to ensure they are captured,” he added.
Confidence Okwuchi
