One of the highlights of the ‘gains’ of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent state visit to the United Kingdom (UK) was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the setting up of a campus of the University of Coventry in Lagos. The ‘deal’, a Transnational Education (TNE) partnership with the UK institution, is said to be designed “to allow Nigerian students to earn fully accredited UK degrees locally at a significantly lower cost.”
Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education, according to the Minister, Dr. Tunji Alausa, is working with support from the UK’s Department of Business and Trade to ensure that the campus takes off by the third quarter, 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. Alausa said the degrees to be awarded by the university campus to be sited at Alaro City, Lagos State “will be equivalent to those issued in the United Kingdom,” thus, affording students local opportunity to earn fully accredited UK degrees without leaving Nigeria.
Further justifying the setting up of the Nigerian campus of the UK university, the education minister said it would “enable Nigerian students to access world-class education locally at significantly reduced cost.” He said it would “strengthen skills development and improve graduate employability,” as well as “let parents enjoy their children being at home while still receiving a world-class UK education.”
A casual consideration of this initiative makes it look plausible and worthwhile; but a deeper analysis exposes it as a direct indictment of the entire higher education system in Nigeria. The move shows that no existing Nigerian university offers “world-class” education as the Coventry University campus would soon offer in Nigeria. It also means that even if Nigerian universities do offer “world class” education, the tag of ‘UK’ to degrees makes the holders (more) employable in the market place.
As information from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education shows, the Coventry University campus in Lagos would be offering Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM), Business, and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Obviously these are areas many Nigerian universities have been paying much attention to, in the past few decades — in tune with global trends.
This new focus, and justification for the satellite campus of the UK university in Nigeria at this point in time puts a huge question mark over the raison d’etre and accomplishments of Nigerian universities. The UK Coventry University campus arrangement is coming 78 years after the University College Ibadan (UCI) was set up as a branch of the University of London (in 1948). The UCI awarded London degrees up until 1967; although it became University of Ibadan in 1962.
The setup of the UCI followed recommendations from the Asquith and Elliot Commissions on Higher Education in the then-British colonies, which called for two universities linked to the University of London to be established in Ghana and Nigeria. Records show that staff and students from Yaba Higher College (in Lagos) were transferred to Ibadan to form the new University College.
Almost eight decades after all these happened, and nearly 66 years after Nigeria’s independence from the British, Nigeria is intentionally reverting to colonial status quo. This is happening at a time Nigeria has about 310 universities — 160 of them privately owned, and the rest owned by the federal and state governments. Instructively, Nigeria led sub-Saharan Africa with 24 universities in the 2026 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, published by a UK-based magazine and data company.
Also, over the years, products of Nigerian universities in virtually all disciplines have outshined competitors from other universities across the globe. Whether in the STEMM, TVET or Business and Management courses, Nigerians who trained in Nigeria rank amongst the best both in practice and/or further (academic) studies.
It therefore beats one’s imagination as to why Nigerian parents would be wishing that their children obtain UK university degrees for them to be employable. This mindset, if it truly exists, is a pointer to the perceived ‘drop’ in the standards of education in Nigeria. But how far would the UK Coventry University campus in Lagos go in filling the perceived ‘gaps.’
Over the years, both the academic and non-academic staff unions of Nigerian universities have been ‘crying to high heavens’, asking successive administrations to not only adequately fund but also properly equip the universities for improved teaching, research and learning. Not on a few occasions have Nigerian universities remained shut down (courtesy of strikes) for upwards of one year or more.
This ‘decadent’ academic environment has seen staff of Nigerian universities (public and private) leave in droves in the past couple of years — all seeking for greener pastures abroad. This trend has led to the regulatory body — National Universities Commission (NUC) — not accrediting or withdrawing the accreditation of a number of courses in many of the universities.
These are however not enough reasons for a return to colonial times, when a college of the University of London (UCI) had to be set up in Nigeria for Nigerians to acquire only UK degrees. Today, it is safe to say that most of Nigeria’s ‘First Generation’ universities and many of the well set up private ones are still as good as anyone anywhere else. It therefore amounts to only an expression of colonial mentality for Dr. Tunji Alausa and his cohorts to drag Nigeria back to colonial attachment — especially in the area of higher education.
The task before the minister of education, and indeed the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is to substantially fund and upgrade Nigerian universities. This does not necessarily mean nominal increase in the volume of budgetary allocations but total improvement in the overall quality of higher education in the country. Some campuses of the existing public universities could be merged in the upgrading process.
Through the NUC and the Education ministry itself, appropriate policies must be put in place to ‘lift up’ the standards in some of the private universities. At present, some of these private varsities operate as mere ‘glorified’ high schools — in terms of infrastructure and academic work. Retired lecturers, and ‘inexperienced’ teachers, also poorly paid, are usually recruited, and retained, just to ‘keep the system running.’ Some of these retired lecturers at times hold multiple part-time appointments with several of these private universities.
However, it is an escapist route to ‘import’ a British university into Nigeria to run as a model to produce employable graduates. The ‘deal’ for a Coventry University campus in Nigeria in this 21st century is not only an anathema to the development of higher education in the country but also an anachronism. Where are Nigeria’s Centres of Academic Excellence — that refer to universities (private and public) that have attained and sustain exceptional academic standing?
As has been the bane of the Nigerian economy, the Coventry University campus gambit is another policy somersault with the capacity to cripple higher education development in the country. Not long ago, the federal government had shut the door against degrees from neighbouring West African countries, and ‘vetted’ many from other foreign universities.
This stance ought to have been maintained, to truly leapfrog the development of Nigerian universities. The birth of the Coventry University in Lagos could therefore exert a bandwagon effect; such that everyone who is somebody in the polity would opt to have their ward obtain the much-hyped UK degree from the school. This could be called the ‘colonial mentality’ or ‘Nigerian mentality.’ And after Coventry, other UK, US, Canadian, and Indian universities could follow — to establish their satellite campuses in Nigeria.
This is indeed an avoidable educational policy blunder. A stitch in time saves nine. Let the Coventry University campus ‘brainwave’ end with the fanfare and publicity that greeted its announcement in London during President Tinubu’s state visit to the UK.
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Marcel Okeke, a practising economist and consultant in Business Strategy & Sustainability based in Lagos, is a former Chief Economist at Zenith Bank Plc. He can be reached at: obioraokeke2000@yahoo.com; +2348033075697
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