From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has confirmed a working relationship with the British Council in Nigeria to boost transnational education.
Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, stated this while hosting a delegation of British Council, led by Director of Global Network, Charlie Walker.
He said partnership will facilitate knowledge sharing, collaborative research, and faculty development, adding it will also expose Nigerian academics to global best practices, enhancing the overall quality of education in the country.
His words: “We are also glad for your support to the ongoing efforts to 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 Minister has been following up on some progress in this direction, is 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”.
Echono announced that TETFund will re-allocate 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.
Earlier in his remarks, Walker underscored the importance of transnational education in bridging the knowledge gap and fostering global understanding between Nigeria and the UK, while also promoting cultural exchange, research collaboration, and skills development among Nigerian students and academics.
He 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 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.