By Ngozi Nwankwo
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund,TETFund, has said it is taking steps to boost transnational education in Nigeria by partnering with British institutions.
This is even as it announced that it will reallocate the savings from its suspended overseas scholarship programme to fund in-house training and capacity-building initiatives for Nigerian institutions, aiming to enhance their educational capabilities.
Executive Secretary of the Fund, Sonny Echono stated this while hosting a delegation of British Council, led by Director of Global Network, Charlie Walker.
According to Echono, TETFund’s partnership with British institutions will facilitate knowledge sharing, collaborative research, and faculty development.
He said this collaboration will expose Nigerian academics to global best practices, enhancing the overall quality of education in the country.
Echono said this approach will enable local institutions to develop their capacity to offer high-quality programmes, ultimately reducing the country’s reliance on foreign education.
His words: “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 meeting as you acknowledge with Sir Steve Smith on this, with our NUC and all the major stakeholders. And there is an agreed template that we are working on.
“And that TETFund will be in a position to support the partner institutions here to ensure that they meet the requirements and also provide all the resources that are required for them to host these programmes, or to go into the collaboration with their British partners as the first step in implementing the guidelines that we have adopted.
“We are aware of the multiple dimensions of transnational education. And the various ways that this will be implemented. But the assurance we will give, and this is supported by the Ministry, because the Honourable Minister has been following up on some progress in this direction, that TETFund will be there and will provide the right funding to support those institutions. And we believe it’s 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, universality of knowledge and the current trends that are out there, some of which will still be novel to us back here.
“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”.
Earlier in his remarks, 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 pointed out that the relationship between the UK and Nigeria had remained very important and age-long with tremendous bilateral achievements and successes, explaining that the most important one was 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, adding that it had also opened access to international education and knowledge to expertise, and other study opportunities for young Nigerians.
According to him, the concept of TNE will help to internationalise education in Nigeria and UK, both for the benefit of young Nigerians and young British people.
“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 because we believe the collaboration between British institutions, British universities, and Nigerian universities can be hugely beneficial in the areas of research and in the areas of teaching and study for young people and the skills development that young Nigerians need.
“We are delighted that the guidelines on Transnational education have now moved to the implementation stage that you are considering an exciting pilot programme across the six geopolitical regions of Nigeria, and we are excited about the prospect of British partners coming into that pilot programme, and hope that we in the British Council, we assure you that we are here to support that development and to work with the TETFund and other partners in government on both sides to make sure that we can play a successful role in the next stages of this programme,” he said.