By Linus Aleke
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), has concluded arrangement to expand access to university education in Nigeria with a view to meeting the high demand for tertiary education by citizens.
The Deputy Executive Secretary (DES), Administration, National
Universities Commission (NUC), Mr. Chris Maiayaki said this at the Pre-departure Orientation for over 200 awardees of Erasmus+ scholarship programme and Study in Europe Fair in Abuja.
He noted that current statistics reveals that out of two million students that apply for admission into the 219 universities annually, only 5 or 7000 are offered admission at the end of the exercise.
To this end, he said the NUC has developed a model that will help address the short fall.
Mr. Maiayaki said, “The National Universities Commission, as a sole regulatory agency of government, with the mandate of ensuring the orderly development of university education in Nigeria, is relentless in its efforts to reposition the Nigerian university system, but we reckon that we cannot undertake this onerous task alone. Therefore, the Commission, in conjunction with critical stakeholders recently embarked on some legacy projects. The first of them is one that will interest the Western European universities. We have just consummated our guidelines and much awaited guidelines on Transnational education.
“This will allow foreign investors and universities into the Nigerian university space through the establishment of four campuses in Nigeria. They can also undertake partnerships with existing universities under six competitive models, namely the franchise, the branch campus, the twinning and articulation and then the distance learning and acquisition and merger.
The submission of this guideline or Open Universities to genuine and mutually beneficial collaboration with overseas partners. You all know that one of the major problems at the Nigerian university system is access.
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“On an annual basis, we’ll have about 2 million kids wanting to go to the university and the 219 universities put together can only accommodate may be just 5 or 7000. So, it is incumbent on us, to open up the space, so that more players can participate”.
He applauded the European delegation for working tirelessly to harness and produce some of the best outstanding and creative Nigerian minds who will soon join orders in our continuous quest to build a solid economic foundation for our nation.
The NUC further commended the EU for their contributions in generating, disseminating and expanding the frontiers of knowledge to develop Nigerian manpower to this impactful scholarship program cannot be over, emphasized.
