Nigerian government has opened the door to closer collaboration with the United Kingdom (UK) on Transnational Higher Education (TNE) to unlock new opportunities for students.
Receiving the Nigerian – UK Steering Committee on Transnational Higher Education (NIG-UK-HE-TNE), the minister of state for education, Dr Yusuf Sununu expressed hope that the partnership will help the country address the challenge of access and others.
Sununu said, “The population of the country is growing and there is a need for more universities due to the increasing number of children.”
He, therefore, said the capacity of Nigerian universities are not enough to address the demand of every citizen, noting that the transnational education will be the key to ensure Nigerians have access to education.
Earlier, the UK government International Education Champion, Professor Sir Steve Smith, who led the delegation said Nigeria is one among the five countries that UK is deepening relations with.
He said the aim of the partnership is to work out modalities on how UK universities can work more cooperatively with Nigeria as partners in the future.
“Transnational education is where someone studies in the country for a high-quality UK degree with quality assured by the British quality assurance system.
“It’s obviously a lot cheaper to study here than it is to travel to the UK for three or four years and study and yet the quality is the same.
“To do that, though, we’ve had to have a couple of years negotiations with the NUC on the guidelines for transnational education and honorable Minister,
“We are not coming here and saying, this is what you should do. That would be silly. We’re coming here to listen and to learn, and in the areas of schools, what we’ve done with transnational education, to work together to find a common pattern of how we can work for the mutual benefit of both countries,” he said.
