The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), in its unrelenting approach to enhance the knowledge base of Nigerians has taken a step forward to promote transnational education in Nigeria by partnering with British institutions.
Consequently, the Fund announced plans to reallocate the savings from its suspended overseas scholarship programme to fund in-house training and capacity-building initiatives for Nigerian institutions to boost capabilities.
The Executive Secretary of the Fund, Arc. Sonny Echono, disclosed these strategies while hosting a delegation of British Council led by its Director of Global Network, Charlie Walker.
Echono said that TETFund’s partnership with British institutions will facilitate knowledge sharing, collaborative research and faculty development. It will also expose Nigerian academics to global best practices and enhance overall quality of education in the country.
He added that the approach will enable local institutions develop their capacity to offer high-quality programmes, which will ultimately reduce the country’s reliance on foreign education.
“Let me underline and acknowledge the very cordial, deep historical bilateral relations between our two countries and the work of the British Council. We are also glad for your support to the ongoing efforts in trying to see how we can move a little bit quicker in the area of transnational education.
“We have held series of meetings with major stakeholders and there is an agreed template that we are working on. TETFund will be in a position to support the partner institutions here to ensure that they meet the requirements and also, provide required resources for hosting these programmes.
“We are aware of the multiple dimensions of transnational education and the various ways that this will be implemented but we assure that TETFund will provide the right funding to support those institutions. We believe it is coming at the right time because by way of policy, we have suspended sending our scholars abroad.
“Those who are there now will complete their programmes but for the next few years, we intend to do in-house training. We recognize the fact that not all the institutions here can meet the actual needs given the global nature.
“So, we want to be able to leverage on our partners who have a wider reach, more experience and exposure, particularly in areas of new technologies and new ways of doing things, to be able to bring it here so we are more or less leapfrogging.”
He said the Fund is collaborating with the National Universities Commission (NUC) to track the progress of these partnerships, assuring that once they reach the implementation phase, TETFund will provide support to the local partner institutions to help them meet the programme requirements.
The TETFund boss added that with funds allocated for overseas training now being redirected, the agency is poised to enhance the capacity of local institutions to develop and deliver such programmes effectively.
Earlier, Walker underscored the importance of transactional education in bridging the knowledge gap and fostering global understanding between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, while also promoting cultural exchange, research collaboration and skills development among Nigerian students and academics.
The director noted that the relationship between the UK and Nigeria has remained very important with tremendous bilateral achievements and successes, the most crucial of which is investment in education.
The leader of the delegation further explained that the works of the British Council had connected students, teachers and academics in Nigeria and the UK as well as opened access to international education, especially study opportunities for young Nigerians.
“We in the British Council see the importance of transnational education, which is very central to what we want to achieve in our work in higher education. Again, we believe that collaboration between British institutions, British universities and Nigerian universities can be hugely beneficial in the areas of research, teaching and study for young people as well as skills development that young Nigerians need.
“We are delighted that the guidelines on transnational education have moved to the implementation stage that you are considering an exciting pilot programme across the six Geo-Political Zones of Nigeria, and we are excited about the prospect of British partners coming into that pilot programme, and we in British Council are here to support that development and to work with TETFund and other partners in government on both sides to ensure that we play a successful role in the next stages of the programme”, he said.
Walker was accompanied on the visit by the Country Director of British Council, Donna McGowan; Director of Programmes, Chikodi Onyemerela and head of Higher Education Programme, Daniel Emenahor.
