The Deputy Head, European Union in Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mr. Richard Young, has stated that the European Union is set to collaborate with the University in three important areas, namely: Tuning, Horizon 2020 and the Erasmus plus programmes. Mr. Young, who is also an EU Minister disclosed this during a meeting he had with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olusola Oyewole. According to him, the three programmes exist in terms of collaboration, and one of them is the Tuning programme, which has developed into a process, an approach to re-designing, develop, implement, evaluate and enhance quality first, second and third cycle degree programmes.
He said Tuning focuses not on educational systems but on structures with emphasis on the subject area level, that is the content of studies, adding that educational systems were primarily responsibilities of governments while contents of educational programmes are that of higher educational institutions and their academic staff. He added that the name, Tuning, was chosen so as to reflect the idea that Universities do not have uniform degree programmes. He lauded the Vice-Chancellor for being active in running the Tuning programme, which had recorded huge success. Meanwhile, Mr. Young stated that the Horizon 2020 programme was designed to promote academic research collaboration with Europe and other countries. He added that Horizon 2020 would help to achieve this by emphasising excellent science, industrial leadership in tackling societal challenges. He noted that the goal was to ensure that Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together.
He declared that the third programme, which is Erasmus, formerly known as Erasmus Mundus, now rebranded as Erasmus Plus, allows for Higher Education Institutions in Europe and Nigeria to collaborate, noting that it was aimed at boosting skills, employability and supporting the modernisation of education, training and youth systems. According to him, once the collaboration framework was put in place, it would enable them do part of their courses in Europe by making it possible for students to participate in Joint Master’s Degree programme while staff would benefit from capacity building programmes.
Last Updated on December 18, 2015 by admin
