Fisayo Falodi, Success Nwogu, Jesusegun Alagbe,
Enyioha Opara, Peter Dada, and Armstrong Bakam.
Many Nigerian students studying abroad have been seeking transfer to Nigerian universities to complete
their education at home because of the scarcity of foreign exchange.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that the students were forced to take the decision following the huge exchange rate which many parents could no longer afford.
Some of the students told Saturday PUNCH that they would prefer to return to the country to complete their
studies, instead of going through difficulties and long
waits for forex that is no longer available to them at the
appropriate time.
An Ogun State indigene, Babatunde Agboola, who is studying in the United States, told one of our
correspondents that he and some of his friends had agreed to return to Nigeria to complete their studies.
“The message we keep on receiving from home every day is that dollar is scarce and this is affecting our
education,” Agboola said.
Asked which way the scarcity of the dollar was affecting them, he simply said, “In all areas. We need to buy food
and sometimes books, but when there is no money to buy them, automatically we will be affected.
So, it is better we return to Nigeria to complete our studies.”
A large number of Nigerian students are studying abroad, mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom
and Canada, among others.
A 2015 report by the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report on International
Educational Exchange, the United States, claimed that
9,494 students from Nigeria were admitted in the 2014/15 academic session, making Nigeria the leading
source of students from Africa and the 15th largest country worldwide among international students in the US.
Nigerian universities, especially the private ones, have however, expressed interest in providing spaces for
willing students interested in their respective institutions.
The universities assured the concerned students of standard learning facilities like those found in tertiary
institutions abroad.
For instance, Babcock University said it was interested in accepting transfer students.
It allayed the fears of concerned parents who could not
afford expensive forex and urged them to seek placements for their children in the institution.
The university also promised interested students world-
class learning facilities.
It listed integration of international professional
certifications into academic programmes and well
structured and uninterrupted academic programmes,
among others, as some of the benefits interested
students were bound to enjoy.
A senior official of Babcock University told one of our
correspondents on the telephone that many foreign
students had been seeking transfer to the institution.
He said the opportunity was open to Nigerians who
actually left the country to school abroad and those who
were born there.
The official said, “It is surprising that many parents said
their children would not have completed their education
abroad, but for the opportunity created by Babcock
University to assist stranded students.
“So many people have been coming to us to seek advice
on how to handle their transfer. All they need to do is to
apply and come with their transcripts.
“The opportunity is open to every interested person,
including Nigerians born abroad, but interested in
continuing their education in Nigeria.”
When asked how the standard of the certificates of
those born abroad could be determined in Nigeria, the
official said, “That one is not a problem; there is a way
we usually grade the certificates.”
Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, has admitted a
few of the students who sought transfer from abroad to
the institution.
A senior official of the institution, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said, “One student was
admitted into one of the social sciences departments,
he came from one of the foreign universities to
complete his studies here. He requested for transfer
and he was offered.”
The Registrar, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Alhaja
Rasheedat Oladimeji, expressed the hope that the
university would record influx of foreign transfer of
students.
She, however, stated that the university had just started
admission for the next academic session and was
hopeful that some foreign students would seek transfer
to the institution.
The spokesperson for Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti,
Ekiti State, Mr. Afeez Olaniyi, said the institution was
prepared to accept returnee foreign students.
“We will be glad to receive them. Yes, we do accept
foreign students if they meet the requirements. We have
been accepting over the years,” he said.
The Admissions Officer of Redeemer’s University, Ede,
Osun State, Mr. Adewale Ayewole, also said the
institution would gladly receive any returnee student,
stating, “If they have the right qualification, we will
accept them.
If the course the student wants to study is
run in our school, we will accept them.”
Asked if the institution had been receiving requests from
overseas students, Ayewole asked Saturday PUNCH to
forward an email to the school’s registrar.
However, the
registrar had yet to respond to the request as of the
time of publishing this story.
But an official of Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara
State, said the institution doesn’t accept foreign
students.
He said, “If the concerned students have passports, they
will be admitted as international students, but they
cannot serve in the National Youth Service Corps
scheme after the completion of their programmes.
They have to go abroad for their Master’s before they can
serve.
“However, if the students do not have passports, they
have to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination and be admitted like any other local student.”
Though it has been receiving transfer requests from
Nigerians studying abroad, an official of Covenant
University, Ota, Ogun State, said the school does not
accept such requests because of its “peculiar”
curriculum.
The official said, “As far as Covenant University is
concerned, we don’t admit students into 200 Level or
any other higher level. They must start from the scratch
because of the peculiarity of our curriculum. If we are to
admit them as they are requesting, we will somehow alter our curriculum which we don’t do.
Such a student must seek admission afresh by taking the UTME.”
Meanwhile, some parents whose children are schooling
abroad have said that their final year students have been
engaging in menial jobs, among other means, to sustain
themselves.
A parent, Mrs. Abigail Ademuyiwa, whose son is
studying in the University of Kyiv, Ukraine, stated that
her son was in the final year, but had been seeking
scholarship to complete his education following her
inability to send money to him.
She said “Since last year that the foreign exchange has affected the naira, the money I have been sending to him is no longer enough to take care of him, but he told me that he had been seeking scholarship there to complete his education, apart from engaging in menial jobs to cater for himself.
He will graduate this year.”
A man, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, said he would have loved to bring his 21-year-old son from Ghana to complete his education at home, but he was constrained because he
was in his final year.
Sani said, “The tuition I paid in his first two years was not up to what I paid after the forex crisis.
Before, I used to pay N200, 000 per session, but I now pay N400, 000.
“If not because he is in his final year, I would have loved to bring him back to complete his education at home.”
He, however, told one of correspondents that two of his
friends whose children still had more than two academic sessions to complete their studies had sought
placements for them in Nigerian universities.
A Minna-based businessman, Alhaji Jebo Mohammed,
lamented that it had not been easy for him to access forex to fund his children’s education abroad.
Mohammed, however, said in spite of the forex crisis, he would endeavour to ensure that they finished their education abroad.
“It is a commitment and task that must be done,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor, Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State, Prof. Ayandiji Daniel Aina, said though his
university had yet to receive applications from students
seeking transfer from abroad, it was logical for parents who could no longer afford their children’s tuition because of the forex crisis to bring them back home for the completion of their studies.
Asked if his university would admit such students if they sought to transfer to the school, Aina said, “They are
welcome, but we are not basing our readiness to admit them on the forex crisis.”
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