Most Nigerian students in poorly-ranked foreign varsities –TETFund

The Tertiary Educa­tion Trust Fund (TETFund) has decried the continuous choice of poorly ranked foreign universities by beneficiaries of its schol­arship and academic training programme.

The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Dr Abdulla­hi Bichi Baffa, who made this known in Abuja on Monday during an over­sight visit to the agency by the House of Repre­sentatives Committee on Tertiary Education and Services, said substantial number of the scholarship beneficiaries are “studying at the bottom of the league universities.”

While expressing con­cerns on the low impact such beneficiaries will make on return to the coun­try, Baffa said TETFund is working on a guideline that will henceforth make the choice of top world’s uni­versities mandatory, even as he said that the release of grant for international aca­demic conference organ­ised by third parties will no longer be allowed.

Speaking further, Baffa said the TETFund had spent a whooping sum of N1.7 billion on the Na­tional Research Fund but the researches have failed to translate to any improve­ment in the ranking of tertiary institutions in the country.

“TETFund has spent N1.7 billion on National Research Fund but what has the nation benefitted? Grants (to researchers) will henceforth be based on performance-based re­search,” he said

Baffa cautioned tertia­ry education institutions against building ‘cubicles’ or ‘matchbox’ structures to serve as physical infra­structures in schools, say­ing that 30 per cent of the criteria used in the ranking of universities is based on the environment.

On his part, the Chair­man of House of Repre­sentatives Committee on Tertiary Education and Services, Hon Aminu Su­leiman, commended TET­Fund for its various strides in ensuring the massive de­velopment in tertiary insti­tutions across the country.

Suleiman, however, called for more attention in the area of provision of in­frastructure to the 12 new federal universities estab­lished by the last adminis­tration, saying that facilities in the schools are not up to 30 per cent of what is re­quired.

The committee chairman also appealed to TETFund to also address the infra­structural needs of tertiary institutions in the North East of the country as a result of the insurgency in the area that took a toll on them.