From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Igbinedion University Okada has entered into academic agreement with the V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine, to absorb 2, 500 of its students who were displaced by the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
A statement from Dr. Cliff Ogbede, who is the representative of the University in Nigeria, explained that the agreement was reached under the platform of the Joint Transnational Educational Programme under the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC) Transnational Educational guidelines.
He said the cooperation will enable students who were displaced by the ongoing war in Ukraine to resume classroom lectures in Igbinedion University campus, possibly alongside 5, 000 displaced students of the Ukraine from different African countries who would come down to Nigeria to participate in the programme.
Dr. Ogbede further explained that the joint transnational educational program which was recommended by the Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science in line with the guidelines of the NUC allows Ukrainian academic institutions to continue online adaptation of study in addition to a joint educational programme with highly rated foreign partner institutions.
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“In this new collaboration, the two Universities would jointly develop educational activities, expanding opportunities for access to all levels and forms of quality higher education, educational programmes and courses, based on the recommendations of UNESCO, as well as the implementation of the right to academic mobility.
“The program will enable the undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Ukraine university to continue their academic programmes uninterrupted, in addition to the existing distance learning mode, as a similar model is applied in particular for the organization of academic cooperation with Universities in Turkey and some other countries.
“It is also geared towards the creation of a sustainable system of educational, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two Universities, based on high international academic standards, thereby encouraging the development of regional cooperation for the harmonization of educational qualifications, implementation of effective models and forms of education that meet the current challenges and global trends,” Dr. Ogbede said.
He stated that, in addition to the programmes, the two Universities would expand the cooperation by ensuring quality cross-cultural communications, development of international partnerships for the commercialization of educational products, encouraging the development of the knowledge economy and enriching the scope of educational programs, disciplines and teaching experience of both institutions.
Dr. Ogbede predicted that the cooperation will enable the two institutions in future to start conducting joint educational programs, degree and qualification courses with common or dual certification, which may include the harmonization of curricula between the two parties and mutual recognition of prior periods of study at the partner University.
“They would also conduct parallel educational programmes which provides for awarding of separate certifications of each separate institution, and open and distance learning, providing for the provision of quality academic programs and courses leading to the award of qualifications, with no space or time limitations,” he added.