Government-funded foreign scholarship programme halted

The ambition of Nigerian academics to study abroad with the help of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, or TETFund, has been dealt a blow following the suspension of the fund’s foreign scholarship programme.

Several lecturers told University World News the TETFund’s decision would deprive Nigerian scholars of international exposure and global competitiveness in learning and research, but the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) backed the suspension.

The fund, according to a memo by Sonny Echono, the executive secretary, dated 25 November, and addressed to university vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts of the beneficiary institutions, premised the suspension of the foreign component of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff intervention “on the high cost of training and the abscondment of scholars on getting abroad”.

“Beneficiary institutions are, accordingly, advised to prioritise their training needs for implementation locally [at Nigerian institutions]. It is expected that this will conserve and reduce pressure on the foreign exchange rate, boost investment and local capacity in our institutions, while significantly increasing the number of beneficiaries of the intervention,” the memo added.

The policy is effective from 1 January 2025, but scholars already enrolled in foreign institutions will be able to complete their respective programmes, the circular said.

The fund, according to its website, “is an intervention agency set up to provide supplementary support to all levels of public tertiary institutions”.

Scholars who fail to return

Echono, in a news report in The Guardian, said earlier this year that 137 scholars sponsored by the fund absconded, despite signing a bond to return home after completing their programmes.

From June 2023 to July 2024, the TETFund gave NGN10.8 billion (about US$6.5 million) in scholarships to 4,980 academics in government-run universities for masters, doctoral and post-doctoral degrees. Of the sum, NGN8.6 billion went into the training of 68 academics in foreign universities and 1,156 academics in local universities for PhDs, according to a news report in Punch.

Lecturers kick against suspension

But several lecturers, who have either applied for the TETFund foreign scholarship or intended to do so, rebuffed the suspension, saying it will prevent them from obtaining global academic exposure.

“I felt very bad about the [TETFund’s] decision. It is a total drawback to Nigerian scholars,” Aliyu Abdullahi, a lecturer at Jigawa State University, told University World News.

He urged the government to address the immediate and remote factors, including economic hardship, that discouraged some scholars from returning to Nigeria.

“I did my masters at a university in Malaysia on a TETFund scholarship two years ago and returned home. I was planning to apply for a PhD but, unfortunately, the TETFund has taken this decision.

“Many scholars are absconding because of the economic hardship in Nigeria. The government should address this. There are a lot of outstanding allowances the government owes academics. It promised to pay, yet it has not fulfilled its promise. If the government is able to meet these demands, scholars will be encouraged to come back home and contribute their quotas,” he said.

A lecturer at the University of Ilorin, who asked to remain anonymous, said the suspension of the foreign scholarship is insensitive, noting that the cons of the policy far outweigh its pros.

While it is true that some scholars have absconded once they got abroad, a number of others have returned home after their PhD or post-doctoral studies, the lecturer said.

“There are a lot of advantages that come with foreign studies, but the government is shying away from them. At first, it is the exhibition of knowledge. When you send your scholars abroad to acquire knowledge, they are also showcasing their talents in the process of learning.

“Secondly, when they are returning home, they are coming back as better scholars. They would have carried out studies that would directly or indirectly bring about development in Nigeria. They would also be more exposed [to trends in their fields of study] and bring back that level of exposure to their own society to drive development,” she stated.

The immediate past president of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Anderson Ezeibe, observed that the TETFund should have been more innovative in addressing the issues hampering foreign scholarship instead of suspending the programme.

“As a union, we do not think it serves the best interests of Nigerians and the Nigerian education system if we isolate Nigerian scholars from the global space. It will certainly rob us of the gains of global [experience],” Ezeibe told University World News.

“ASUP would have preferred a situation where the TETFund will be much more innovative in handling the issue of forex and abscondment … However, we hope this suspension is a temporary measure,” he added.

Suspension in order, says ASUU

However, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, backed the TETFund for putting the foreign scholarship on hold. He said the huge sums spent on the scholarship should be utilised to upgrade local universities to a standard that can attract students from other countries.

Osodeke said: “The government spends so much money to send scholars abroad, but many of them have not been coming back, which is terrible. In some universities, the TETFund gave a candidate up to NGN60 million and, with the new exchange rate, it might be up to NGN100 million. Meanwhile, a whole department does not get NGN20,000 to develop itself.

“Why can’t we spend money to get our departments upgraded to international standards so that we will start attracting students from abroad the same way our students are travelling abroad? That is what we want.”

Asked if the suspension would not deprive Nigerian scholars of international exposure, he said: “I agree [it will]. But why should international exposure be one direction? How many scholars are coming to Nigeria for exposure? It has to be universal: as our students are going out, others should be coming in. That is [what international exposure is about].”

A mix of local and international academics in an institution is a criterion in university ranking but, in Nigerian universities, “99.9% of the lecturers are Nigerians,” the ASUU president explained.

“Once we get our departments to such a state that we can attract foreign students and lecturers, we can have a rethink of the TETFund’s decision. I don’t believe we should block it [foreign scholarship]. However, there are still other available foreign scholarships academics can explore,” he added.