The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, has revealed that the UK and Nigeria have agreed a transnational education partnership approach.
According to him, this means the UK universities can work with Nigerian institutions more effectively and work on common standards, raising standards and sharing expertise and lessons in particular sectors.
Montgomery, who stated this on Tuesday on the day 1 of the Going Global Conference being held in Abuja, said he was absolutely confident the two countries will go from strength to strength to bring to bear the best of education.
“I think what’s in it for the UK is that it’s in all our interest to build higher education institutions that are more resilient and provide a better quality education and meet the needs of economies in Africa. And that’s in all our interests,” he said.
“We want to grow our relationship. We need to improve the way the UK higher education sector provides its expertise and its partnerships.
“The UK and Nigeria have agreed a transnational education partnership approach, which means the UK universities can work with Nigerian institutions more effectively and work on common standards, raising standards and sharing expertise and lessons in particular sectors,” he announced.
“And I’m really delighted that sir Steve Smith, the Prime Minister’s International Education champion, is here and is with a delegation of 11 Vice Chancellors from the UK to have discussions with their colleagues in Nigerian higher education institutions here over the next couple of days, both in Abuja and in Lagos. So I think it’s a shared set of interests.
Also, fielding questions from the press, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alaussa, said that President Bola Tinubu wants the education system in the country reformed.
He said it was important that Nigeria’s education is aligned to the needs of the society and to the needs of the 21st century.
“We’re training a lot of graduates, churning out a lot of graduates from our universities that are not employable,” he added.
“We have a unique demography in this country. Nobody has it in the world. We have a population of two 200 million people. 70% of those people are below the age of 30 years old.
“We have to give them an opportunity. And this is what this President is all about. This is what the Renew Hope Agenda is all about. We’re going to be doing a lot of things, and I heard some others are going to be taking some things out from this conference, from initial discussion. “