Officials from the London Academy Business School and the University of Sunderland are currently seeking approval from the National Universities Commission to run degree programmes in Nigeria.

A delegation from the University of Sunderland, led by Derek Watson, confirmed this after a meeting with the acting Executive Secretary of the NUC, Chris Maiyaki, in Abuja, according to a statement released on Thursday.

According to the statement, Watson, an associate professor from the Faculty of Business Law and Tourism, was quoted to have said, “The meeting with the Executive Secretary was very productive, the University of Sunderland has over 30 years of experience.

“We were the first UK university to market. What we have agreed on today is the criticality of following the compliance procedures. In addition to that, we would source credible academics to deliver our programmes from LABS who are qualified teachers and also practising consultants. The student will get the same experience as those students studying in England.”

President/Director of Studies, London Academy Business School, Larry Jones-Esan, explained that the visit to NUC was to get the nod to run programmes in Nigeria.

He said, “The meeting with the NUC today is for us to get the recognition that we are allowed to run the Sunderland courses in Nigeria; so, we do not need the NUC accreditation, what we need is recognition, that is very important because if we run any courses in Nigeria without them recognising it, that degree is useless and they cannot do NYSC, so we do not want that to be the case.

“So, what we have done is that we bring those people in and come in myself as the CEO of the London Academy Business School, make sure that we have them aware of what we are doing.”

Jones-Esan described the partnership between the two institutions as important, having seen an opportunity in Nigeria.

“If two million people apply for university admissions every year in Nigeria and only 700,000 are getting a place, that is a problem and that is a challenge and they want to solve that problem and we think we have come at the right time,” he said.

Punch