NDDC records milestone partnerships with UK varsities
By Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has announced its consolidating process of existing partnerships with universities in the United Kingdom to ensure that the commission gets more value for its human capital development programmes.
Speaking after a five-day working visit to some universities in the United Kingdom where NDDC scholars are undergoing post-graduate studies, acting Managing Director, Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, said it was important “to find out the challenges scholars are facing in their various institutions in order to resolve them.”
Prof. Brambaifa said the visit afforded the team and other directors of the commission “the opportunity to explore the prospects of deepening the relationships with foreign institutions to ensure we take advantage of other mutually beneficial programmes.”
He said that the NDDC delegation interacted with the scholars benefiting from the commission’s Foreign Post- Graduate Scholarship Scheme in the University of Coventry, University of Derby, University of Sanford, University of Birmingham, University of Hertfordshire and University of Huddersfield.
The NDDC chief executive said his team had a fruitful meeting with officials of the University of Coventry and a staff of the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship.
Brambaifa stated that the two parties identified four major areas for further collaboration. According to him, there was an agreement for the establishment of specific master’s level scholarships for best graduating students from universities in the Niger Delta region while the commission is planning to establish a doctoral training centre.
He added: “The third area is to establish a platform for the promotion of innovation and enterprise. The fourth is to establish an e-library system which will allow researchers and scholars from the Niger Delta region to have access to materials published from top journals and electronic databases.
“The meeting also agreed to initiate an exchange programme between the University of Coventry and select universities based in the Niger Delta region. We are determined to ensure that any outstanding issues with all our scholars and host institutions are comprehensively resolved.”
The NDDC boss stated that the commission was very serious with its human capital development programmes, noting that it was pursuing improved investments in the educational sector as part of plans to ensure that the youth get the right employment.
At the University of Sanford in Manchester, the university management thanked the NDDC delegation for the visit, declaring that the university was ready to partner with the commission to offer additional scholarships and offer fee reduction to deserving students.
