CHALLENGES TO THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
A Speech delivered by Mr. B.O. Omotosho,MD MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND TRAINING LIMITED at the Seminar
“UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN AMERICA” Held at UNILAG GUEST HOUSE on 12th November 2013

The diversity policy of the higher education system in the United States compels American Universities to enrol foreign students. The Diversity policy is the recognition of the fact that cultural diversity invigorates the academic environment and brings about innovations and insightful solutions to academic problems. To enrol foreign students, Universities employ different strategies which include scholarships, appointment of agents and advertisement. The result of this has been the upsurge of interest in American Education in the last decade. The unrest in public Universities has also contributed to the increased interest in American Education. Over the years, there has been improvement in the administration of student VISAs which has also made American Education more attractive.
We also need to mention the instability of the public University system in Nigeria, characterized by frequent closures, as I am talking; Public Universities have been on strike for over four months. This has led to deterioration in the quality of the academic programmes which have made graduates of public Universities uncompetitive. Many countries have taken advantage of this to enrol Nigerian students. Neighbouring countries like republic of Benin and Ghana are reported to have more than 75,000 Nigerian students. The same applies to such countries like Ukraine, Cyprus, Russia, Malaysia and India.
The two major attractions to these countries are affordable school fees, usually under $10,000/year and no qualifying examinations outside of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. This is where entry into American Universities differ, they have qualifying exams, like the SAT and ACT for undergraduate and GRE and GMAT for graduates and TOEFL for all students.
It is not the challenge posed by the content of these examinations that has affected the popularity of American Universities, Many countries such as MET have sprung up and have been able to align the Nigeria and American curriculum of these examinations such that many Nigerians excel in these examinations. The problem has to do with the administration of these examinations and the frequent changes of its format. These examinations have moved from paper based to computer based to Internet based. These changes have brought about infrastructural requirements that have affected the smooth administration of these exams and a compromise of their integrity. Twenty years ago, all the examinations were paper based and under the control of West African Examinations Council with specific examination dates. During these periods, everything went smoothly. Things started to go wrong in 1998 when computer based testing was introduced for the TOEFL examinations. The Nigerian telecommunications systems had no facilities for data transmissions and this delayed the take off of the new technology examination such that students had to go to Republic of Benin and Ghana to take their examinations. Apart from this, there was a change of the agent from the institutional one (WAEC) to an individual that was selected on Parochial and nepotistic basis who did not have any experience whatsoever in test administration. This individual (Company) was also made the sole agent not only for the conduct of the examination, but the custody of examination materials such as information brochures and application forms.
So the desire of this individual to eliminate all competition generated a lot of conflict that was already born by unprofessional administration of the examination which started the loss of confidence in the process of University Education in America and opened the door to other countries. By the time this conflict was resolved through revocation of the agency, a new technology had arisen called Internet based test. In order to reduce their cost of administering these exams, they engaged companies with computer infrastructure without conducting due diligence on them, this was so for GMAT, GRE and TOEFL and many of these Companies were also given SAT examination centres. This was in the period between 2008 and 2011. This led to mass compromise of all these examinations and indiscriminate closure of examination centres without adequate notice to takers of these examinations which resulted in frustration of the objectives, goals and ambitions of Nigerian students at both the undergraduate and graduate level which increased the disenchantment with the American Education. Even as I speak, Nigeria has been cancelled as a test centre for TOEFL, GRE and GMAT. The fate of SAT is unknown. This is currently causing a lot of chaos because it has affected many companies and many examination candidates and its showing the United States in a very bad light. The United States is not the only country that conducts examination here in Nigeria. Such examinations as IGCSE, GCE O levels, GCE A levels, ACCA, ICMA and University of South Africa Examinations have been taking place for years with little or no scandal attending their conduct. How have they been able to do this? We shall use the British council to illustrate. The British council has several departments, many of which are manned by Nigerians and there is active engagement with Nigerian companies and institutions on which due diligence have been conducted. Such companies take part in various training programmes organized by the British Council. Disciplinary action is easy because of the identification of these companies and institutions. The United States embassy and its agencies in Nigeria have refused to do this because it will serve as an endorsement which they claim is against their policies of non commercialization of education. This is fallacious from our knowledge of educational industries in the United States which has the following features:
1. Publishers and Vendors of test Preparatory materials such as Kaplan, Barron’s, Princeton Review, ETS, Collegeboard etc
2. Tutorial Companies such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, Sylvan learning.
3. Educational Counsellors and Advisors, too numerous to mention.
The fees charged by Nigerian companies for these services are far lower than that charged by American companies.
Many of these cooperate under an umbrella called NAFSA (Association of International Educators)
So, my opinion is that education in USA should be expanded and organised along the lines of British council, In order to cure all the illnesses that attend the processes of University education in America. The issue that will first come up will be that of funding of the processes. This is where the issue of membership becomes relevant. Membership should be corporate and individual with membership fees based on the type of services being offered. All schools, running British exams must be approved by the British council. I therefore strongly believe that sufficient funds can be raised from membership. Other sources of funds will include various training programmes, fairs and exhibitions. The inadequate operations of Education USA are depriving both Nigeria and the USA obvious revenue in the educational industries. It is a shame that Nigeria is not a destination for exchange programmes of American students which could bring in millions of dollars into the Nigerian economy. Ghana is benefitting from these short comings in the Nigerian system. For the USA, there’s a big loss arising from inability to draw from the massive intellectual potentials of Nigerians, therefore denting the educational policies of President Obama which seek to reinvigorate the American Educational system to make it more competitive by increasing the diversity of American institutions.
In conclusion, therefore, I will urge the American Embassy to face the reality of the Nigerian situation, discard all negative mindset and make University Education in America more attractive.
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