Research Collaboration With Universities To Promote Nigeria And Uk

Source: Sand M.K

Bobby Mehta, International Director of the international office of the University of Portsmouth has said collaboration with Universities in Nigeria will help improve research and teaching capacities for Nigeria and help promote the economies of Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

Mehta said the setting up of the University of Portsmouth office in Nigeria is aimed at creating the avenue for students exchange programme adding that this will help to improve Portsmouth and also help to improve Nigerian Universities.

Speaking at the reception of some of its alumni in Lagos and presentation of the new Nigeria/West Africa Country representative - Mrs ChineloKonwea, Mehta disclosed that there are no restrictions to the areas of research this partnership can accommodate.

According to him, “The partnership will build on several research fields of human endeavours. University of Portsmouth is a comprehensive institution that has a wide range of courses covering many disciplines. So we are open to partnerships and researches in many different fields.

In his presentation at the event, he said the university recently received the Gold rating award by the United Kingdom government which now put the institution at par with universities like oxford and Cambridge.

“One of the good things about the university with this Gold rating, in terms of teaching, we are rated among the top universities in the world”, he said.

On his part, Spenser Onuh, Director / Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Satellite Technology Development (CSTD) Abuja called on Nigerian universities to embrace collaborations with Universities from developed economies because they stand to gain through effective exchange of global best practices.

Onuh called on managers of the Nigeria education sector to follow the examples of most western countries by running the nation's education sector especially universities as an industry.

According to him, “I will advocate that Nigeria should think of making their educational sector an industry because when this is done, managers of the sector will do all they can to attract the best students to their universities and ensure the universities compete among the best globally.

Onuh opines that the solutions to Nigerian university education challenge must include the need to professionalise lecturing; address the issue of infrastructure in the universities and the need to make university product saleable.