The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has concluded plans to offer scholarship to foreign students willing to study in the country.

JAMB’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who made the disclosure, however, said such foreign students must record outstanding academic performance in next year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Oloyede noted that quality academic programmes would attract foreign students and said a certain quota of admission space would be set aside for international students.

The board’s spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, in Abuja, on Sunday, quoted the Registrar, to have made the remarks in a paper he presented, during a conference of West Africa universities in Senegal.

Oloyede regretted that African universities are not on the list of global best institutions. He said that unless the problems are addressed, African would continue to produce low quality graduates who cannot defend their certificates in a global competition.

He listed differences in education system in the region, weaker internal assessment mechanism, superficial external quality assurance system, lack of uniformity in accreditation agencies, autonomy and proliferation of institutions as factors responsible for poor quality and weak education system.

Hechallenged participants at the conference to critically deliberate on the aforementioned issues and possibly offer superior suggestions that would herald significant transformation in African education system.

The former vice chancellor of University of Ilorin, (UNILORIN) shared the university’s experience, where he claimed a deliberate effort was made to offer admission opportunities to eligible students from neighbouring West African countries.

He, thus, challenged African universities to develop appropriate policies, mechanisms and structures that would streamline and strengthen current efforts to ensure quality, relevance and excellence in African universities’ research and education network.

The registrar was equally convinced that quality and stronger academic programmes would attract foreign students and also ensure that a certain quarter of their admission space is set aside for international students.

•Sourced from a Daily Sun report