16 UK universities pledge to offer Nigerian students scholarships to study in Britain

SIXTEEN UK universities have pledged to offer Nigerian students scholarships during a recent visit to Abuja by the Northern Consortium of United Kingdom Universities (NCUK) as part of an exchange programme.

During a visit to Abuja yesterday, the universities expressed their willingness to continue facilitating Nigerian students’ quest for qualitative education in the UK and beyond. They offered various types of scholarships and cut their fees by half in a bid to fulfil the continuation of their over five-year partnership with Brookstone Schools which led to the founding of the Brookstone International Foundation Centres in Port Harcourt and Abuja.

Hon Zakari Mohammed, the chairman of Nigeria's House of Representatives Committee on Education, attended the event where the UK visitors met their hosts. Also present were students from various schools including Olamawu Schools and officials of the Quality Assurance Department in the Ministry of Education.

Representatives of the NCUK member institutions which included the universities of Aston, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Huddersfield, Kent, Kingston, Leeds and Manchester, Salford and Sheffield were equally present. Hon Mohammed noted that the collaboration by the NCUK and Brookstone has given unprecedented opportunities to Nigerian students to study in various schools in the UK and beyond.

He added that the fact that the NCUK collaborates with some universities in Ireland, Australia and North America and gives exclusive scholarships to Abuja students is good news for parents wanting qualitative education for their children. Hon Mohammed added that the fact that Brookstone has won the global awards as the best international foundation year centre twice in a row shows that contrary to the belief that the quality of education is on the decline in Nigeria, educational pacesetters abound in the country if given the right incentives and facilities.

Andrew Straughan, the NCUK Brookstone Centre's market development manager, said the international foundation year will offer students easy access and admission to any of the NCUK universities in the UK and other countries. He added that the NCUK is a unique consortium of universities.

Mr Straughan said: “In Nigeria, we have helped over 30,000 international students gain access to university education in UK and of those, over 9,000 are from Nigeria. The unique opportunity with Brookstone is that you can stay in Nigeria for one year before going to the UK to complete your university studies.

“Brookstone will provide students with the highest quality of teaching and experience which will help ensure that students feel prepared to succeed once they start on their degree programme. About 99% of NCUK students get their visas and over 4,000 degrees are available in the NCUK."

Kalada Apiafi, the chairman of the board of governors of Brookstone School, noted that  at the 2017 annual partners awards Brookstone won the Best Academic Global Award for the second consecutive year. He added that Brookstone also won the NCUK University Admissions Award’ and was runner up  Excellence in Student Counselling.