6th July, 2018
Stakeholders have said the reason why Nigerian youths prefer to study abroad was as a result of decay in the nation’s education system.
They spoke during a programme on how Nigerians could study abroad with ease, held at the Sheraton Hotels and Towers, in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, organised by the University of Sunderland, London, United Kingdom. The programme was held simultaneously in Lagos, Benin and Port Harcourt.
Larry Jones, a Nigerian lecturer at the University of Sunderland, said the government needed to know why Nigerian youths preferred studying abroad, lamenting that incessant strike in the nation’s tertiary institution had resulted in students spending up to six years in school for a course that should normally run for four years.
“Why will you want to do a degree for six years? You do one year and the schools are on strike, you end up spending more years. One of the reasons why many youths want to study abroad is the quality, most of our graduates are unemployable; reason being that those who are teaching them are not ready.
“University of Sunderland understands the importance of giving the best. Our system back home in those day are measured with that of the UK, what has happened? Over time, there is decay, there is a system which is not working for the young people. Something is wrong with our education system, we should change the way we do things. The way forward is for those coming to study abroad to go back and change things,” he said.
Ian Moody, Deputy Director, International, University of Sunderland, UK, said the school had been having students from Nigeria for almost a decade now, saying that they were in Nigeria to help students gain admission into the institution which had been in exisence for over 100 years.
“We have really found out that Nigerian students are of high quality and standard. They add more value to the curriculum of the university. We know it has been difficult getting Nigerian students into UK in terms of visas and fees and what we want to do is give back to Nigerians and Africans in terms of offering scholarships; we help students with their visas preparation in order to come to the UK. We also give advise on programmes available and scholarships so far,” he said.
According to him, most Nigerian students go for medicine programme abroad, saying that the school also offer masters programme in Public hHealth, MBA and Ph.D, among others.
Wisdom Okoye, who completed his Ph.D programme at the university, said the education system back here in Nigeria was very poor, saying that was why lots of Nigerians go abroad to study, addding that there was the need for government to investt in education.
“There is decay here in Nigeria, when you go abroad, you have people willing to partner with Nigeria and there is ray of hope. The response of Nigerians here at this programme is tremendous; we expect to have more students here as we go round Nigeria for the interaction.
“Studying abroad is the right thing to do, there are lots of gaps in knowledge here in Nigeria; there is need for them to go out there and come back home and invest the knowledge and transfer the skill into the economy,” he said.
Umeayor Chioma, an undergraduate student at the University of Sunderland, decried that it took longer time to get a degree in Nigeria, saying she would only spend three years studying Nursing than spending four years in Nigeria.
“There are more opportunities there, it is more like adding value to my academics. Nigerians studying abroad is good, their standard of education is higher than ours. We learn more over there and come back here to impact the knowledge, the standard of education in Nigeria should be improved,” she said.