NUC Raises Alarm Over Sending Students Abroad For Higher Education

NUC Raises Alarm Over Sending Students Abroad For Higher Education - The National Universities Commission (NUC) has cautioned the governments of Kano and Osun states over sponsoring too many students to one country for higher qualifications which it noted would not promote diversity of knowledge.

Speaking yesterday at a roundtable on Cross Boarder Higher Education Strategic Partnership organised by the Commission and British Council in Abuja, the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie, noted that sending about 500 students to just one country for scholarship would not encourage spread of knowledge.
Okojie said that the recent Needs Assessment of Nigerian universities has revealed that Nigerian universities have more than 60 per cent academic staff without Phd, a development he said must be checked.

He said: “There is nothing wrong in Nigerian students going for higher degrees abroad, but we can’t send all of them in one direction. If all students go to University of Ibadan now, we won’t have a spread of knowledge. Some universities have special capacities and prospects; Ibadan is known for medicine and agriculture. It is also wrong to send all the students to the United Kingdom or the United States.
“Spread them so that when they are coming they will bring their wealth of experience from different countries. There will be that diversity; you need that diversity in the teaching staff; you can’t stay in the same university, with the same people who graduated from the same university, you won’t learn anything from each other. Diversity is very important. When all of them, about 500 or 70 per cent of them go in the same direction, we are going to have problem when they come back.”

Reiterating that those who have resources should send students to the right places for higher qualifications, Okojie specifically mentioned the Kano State Government, which, according to him, recently awarded scholarship to 500 deserving students, noting that about 70 per cent of such students are going to Ukraine, while the rest are to go to Turkey, Jordan and other countries.
He said Nigerian government is collaborating with the British Council to coordinate and regulate cross boarder higher education so that deserving students can be directed to the right places.

Okojie said: “With the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) of N3bn for research and the recent launch of professional journals, you will find out that we are going to stimulate the system for better researches and publications. We also encourage those have research fund to include postgraduate students in their research work. It makes room for multi-disciplinary approach to research endeavour.(nationalmirrornews)