THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has identified stringent admission policy and restricted quota as the two major factors that are responsible for the increasing number of Nigerians pursuing education abroad.
The executive secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, disclosed this when he received an EDUCase team comprising an amalgamation of several universities from Finland and led by the chairperson of Start North, Dr Jari Handelberg in Abuja.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the delegation visited the NUC to present a concept note for collaboration with Nigerian universities in the areas of entrepreneurship, research and technology deployment in the learning environment, among others, to the executive secretary of the NUC.
While briefing the executive secretary, who was represented by the deputy executive secretary (academics), Dr Noel Biodun Saliu, Handelberg disclosed that EDUCase platform was a pilot initiative of the Finland Ministry for Education and Culture’s Global Programme 2021-2024, with a network of 11 universities and 15 universities of applied sciences.
The executive secretary in his response stated that it was not surprising that Nigerians have decided to study in most parts of the world including Finland, noting that the stringent admission policy as well as the restricted quota was responsible for the increasing number of Nigerians pursuing education elsewhere.”
He told the delegation that NUC would review the EduCase proposal at the management level since the document was just being received.
Harping on the request for the NUC’s endorsement of the proposal, Dr Saliu informed them that the universities might not take the contents hook, line and sinker, but might only consider the areas that would interest them on individual basis as the case might be.
Earlier, Handelberg revealed that EduCase represents the majority of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Finland, with the entire network coordinated by Aalto University.
She told the executive secretary that a Nigerian who was also a visiting scholar, Professor Olatundun Janet Adelegan, belonged to the Faculty of Aalto University.
She stated that “the platform facilitates joint learning activities and also aims at scaling up collaboration with partner countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.”
Dr Handelberg explained that the network promotes practical case collaborations for education, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills development between Finland and partner country HEIs.
According to her, such case studies offered a tangible modality of cooperation to address intersecting sustainable development challenges, with stakeholders representing various cultures, institutions and areas of expertise.
She revealed that another major university in the EduCase network included Lut University, which is a Finnish public research university established in 1969. The University’s Lappeenranta campus is situated on the shore of Lake Saimaa – the 4th largest lake in Europe, while its second campus is in the Finnish city of Lahti. The university also has research units in the Finnish cities of Mikkeli and Kouvola, as well as a regional office in Brussels, Belgium.
She informed the Executive Secretary that LUT Universit, being a university of technology specialises its academics and research in the fields of engineering and technology. The university also has a school of business and a department of social sciences and has developed specialisation in renewable technology, clean water and energy, combating climate change and finding sustainable engineering solutions.
“There are 1,237 staff members and 7,110 undergraduate and graduate students in the university. Over 5,000 students reside in the larger Lappeenranta campus area, and the Lahti campus hosts around 1,000 students. The university also hosts 1,090 students attending Open University and 816 students in continuing education and incidentally has one of its Nigerian student in the team, Mr. Chukwuma Igboanua, who has been a Research Fellow in the Institution” she said.
Dr. Hadelberg added that opportunities abound for Nigerian students as those who study via the technology-modulated process of those universities had no issue with losing their cultural identity as over 40 million jobs could be created through the remote process she also stressed that the students had the advantage of being strategically located to benefit from the technology.
She stated that the EduCase team desire to establish collaboration with Nigerian Universities to make a contribution in addressing the increasing demand for quality higher education in Nigeria and Africa at large. The NUC acknowledged elsewhere the importance of first-time global mobility of people and educational services from one country to the other.
She added that this would foster collaborations between Nigeria and Finland and Finnish universities and their counterparts in Nigeria, stressing that a lot of benefits were derivable by the collaborations under the EduCase initiative.
The Chairperson of the Start North assured the NUC that the team was willing to undertake joint collaborative research and provide venture capitals to Nigerian students as these capitals would afford them opportunities to have access to various beneficial programmes while on study in Finland Universities.
She further said that, EduCase was already in the process of signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some existing universities that had shown interest for partnership in higher education which will be presented to NUC for ratification
