Mr Julius Ayuk-Tabe, Assistant Vice-President, Digital Services, African American University (AUN), Yola has said that Nigerian students studying abroad are returning to study in the institution.
Ayuk-Tabe spoke with newsmen at the 16th Annual Graduation and Awards Event of Global International College (GIC), Jabi, Abuja on Saturday.
He said the students were returning because of the quality tenable in AUN.
Ayuk-Tabe, who is also the Chief Information Officer of AUN, said that the forex crisis contributed to the return of the students.
According to him, AUN has been monitoring the work done by GIC in preparing students for higher education and deemed it wise to partner with it.
“AUN is a place where we prepare the best graduates in the country and we just thought we could partner with a quality school like GIC.
“Some Nigerian parents are not aware of the quality of education we have locally; at AUN, we have lecturers from 37 different countries and students from 8 African countries.
“Nigerian students in America and UK are coming back home to AUN.
“Nigerians in Diaspora are sending their students back home because they are realising that the quality at home can train their wards to be at par with those abroad.
“When parents realise that the quality back home is high coupled with financial reasons, they bring their wards back home and to AUN,’’ he said.
Speaking, Mrs Bolaji Osime, the Chief Executive officer, GIC, said that the institution was a university preparatory school and not a secondary school.
She said that when students finished secondary school, they came to GIC, which prepared them for foreign universities.
Osime, however, said that because of the forex crisis, many parents could no longer afford to send their children abroad hence the partnership with AUN.
“The capacity to absorb students is not high in Nigerian universities; only about 30 per cent of students who apply secure admission.
“Those who cannot afford to go broad have very good universities to attend locally like the AUN.
“Most of them are prepared for one or two years; those who cannot go through UTME, do the traditional A level with which they get 200 level in Nigerian universities,’’ she said.
According to her, those who do the UK Foundation programme get admission in UK while those who do the Canada Foundation programme, go to Canada.
Osime said that over 60 students had graduated from GIC in Lagos and Abuja in 2016, adding that GIC had been in existence for 16 years.
Speaking on behalf of the graduands, the valedictorian, Master Suleiman Musa, thanked GIC, teachers and parents and promised that the students would be good ambassadors of the country as they studied abroad. (NAN)