In a bid to ensure that Nigerian students who were displaced by the war in Ukraine return to class, a foremost Ukrainian University, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, which established in 1804, has signed a cooperation agreement with Igbinedion University Okada, a premier private university, for the establishment of a joint transnational programme.
A statement by the representative of the Ukrainian university in Nigeria, Dr Cliff Ogbede explained that the cooperation would enable students who were displaced by the war to resume classroom lectures on the Igbinedion University campus on a joint educational programme, under Nigeria’s National Universities Commission (NUC) transnational educational guidelines.
The joint transnational educational programme, which was recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, in line with the guidelines of the NUC, allows Ukrainian academic institutions to continue online adaptation of study in addition to a joint educational programme with highly rated foreign partner institutions.
In this new collaboration, the two universities will jointly be developing educational activities, expanding opportunities for access to all levels and forms of quality higher education, educational programmes and courses, based on the recommendations of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, as well as the implementation of the right to academic mobility, which meets the basic principles of the Bologna declaration.
Ogbede further stated that the joint transnational educational programme would enable the undergraduate and postgraduate students of the foremost Ukrainian V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University to continue their academic programmes uninterrupted in addition to the existing distance learning mode, as a similar model is applied in particular for the organisation of academic cooperation with universities in Turkey and some other countries.
According to him, in addition to these programmes, the two universities would expand their cooperation by ensuring quality cross-cultural communications, developing international partnerships for the commercialisation of educational products, encouraging the development of the knowledge economy and enriching the scope of educational programs, disciplines and teaching experience of both institutions.
“Igbinedion University, which championed the higher education revolution in Nigeria through innovation, entrepreneurship, bespoke and research in tandem with its motto of knowledge and excellence”, Ogbede said.
