Reasons Most African Students Prefer To Study Abroad ~ Information Guide Africa

Presently, there has been a great increase in the number of Nigerian young secondary school leavers migrating to the UK, Canada, Asian countries (China, India, Malaysia) and
other African countries like Ghana.
One amazing fact is that despite the huge fees paid by this young African students over there, their parents and guardians still prefer to take them outside the tides of the country for their university education.

We have researched on this issue and gotten some points that if addressed, it'll reduce the number of Nigerians that migrate outside yearly and also increase the quality of education in the available Nigerian universities.

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What Are The Reasons Nigerian Students Prefer To Study Abroad?

- Low Cost Of Living

Imagine the Dollar-Naira exchange rate, presently, if you reside in Nigeria and you receive your income in dollars, when you exchange it to the Naira, a little amount of US Dollar will change to a very huge amount of money in Naira.

Also, the cost of living in these developed countries is definitely low compared to what we have in Nigeria, and students are given the option of combing there education with some works. With this, you can see some foreign students catering for their basic needs while in school unlike their Nigerian counterparts.

- Low Quality Of Nigerian Tertiary Education

According to the webometrics 2017 ranking of world universities, no university in Nigerian was included in the top 1,000, isn't that bad?

To crown it up, only one made the top twenty in the whole Africa. The best Nigerian University in the list was the University of Ibadan which was the 9th in Africa and 1,032 in the world.

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Looking at these, no parents that can afford sending their wards to study outside the shores of Nigeria will risk sending them to study in any Nigerian university.
In Nigerian universities, you will see a lot of bribery and corruption, lack of quality learning facilities, lack of good and qualified lecturers, bad state of the basic infrastructures, among others.

- JAMB Frustration

According to the Joint Admission And Matriculation Board (JAMB) statistics, only 415,500 out of 1,428,379 applicants in 2015 were offered admission to study in the universities across the country.

What would happen to the rest? Definitely, the rich folks would send their wards to universities outside the country because most of them don't really need any entrance exam to be admitted, just your SSCE results.

- Strikes

In Nigeria, you can hardly see any student that will complete his/her four to five years course successfully without encountering any strike. There are people that it even made to stay for an extra one year in the higher institutions.

The only exceptions to these are those in the private institutions. It is bad to see how the Students' Union sees strike as a first measure rather than a last resort if they want to show their dissatisfaction to anything in the school.

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Let's just take this instance, a normal academic session in a higher institution is supposed to run for three months, if the institution embarks on a three-months strike, it will be extended to a six-months academic session. That's how bad it is.

- Better Job Opportunities

If a survey is carried out on Nigerian students, you'll see that 75% of Nigerian young stars will want to leave the borders of the country if given the choice. This can be said to be because of the better job opportunities seen in some developed countries outside Nigeria.

As at 2015, the number of labour force in Nigeria was estimated to be around at 76.9 million while the number of unemployed stood at 22.5 million. Upon this, yearly more under-graduates are joining the list of graduates and more are yet to join. Those that have the option of schooling abroad choose to go there other than staying in Nigeria to carry files around after completing their education.

This is also another reason Nigerian students would prefer to study abroad.

- High Regard For Foreign Certificates By Employers

Do you know that most Nigerian employers of labour value foreign certificates more than the ones gotten here?

Sounds funny but it's quite a truth. They give excuses that the Nigerian education system is corrupt and other things, but they forget that many of the young Nigerian graduates actually know what they went to the hire institution for and if given the chance, can do the work better that their foreign counterparts.

Isn't it bad, how most of the Nigerian parents send their wards outside the border to have their Tertiary education? But it's not their fault, every one wants the best for their wards and every child deserves the best.
So, the government should put an extra effort into making the Nigerian universities grow in strength and relevance. It is also important the the students' performance be reviewed periodically so that the university system will be adjusted to suit the changing time, and Nigeria will stop lagging behind in development.

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