The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has thrown its weight behind the recent decision by the Federal Government of Nigeria to discontinue its foreign scholarship scheme for students, describing the move as timely, logical, and long overdue.
The union’s national president, in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune, declared ASUU’s full support for the policy shift, stressing that it aligns with the union’s long-standing advocacy for strengthening local educational institutions instead of depending on foreign systems.
According to ASUU, scholarship arrangements should reflect mutual academic exchange, where students from both participating countries benefit from study opportunities. “Foreign scholarships should be two-way traffic,” the union stated. “It is expected that as our students are going abroad to study, foreigners should also be coming to Nigeria to study. That is what bilateral relations are all about—you give me this, and I give you that.”
The union criticised the previous arrangement as imbalanced and unsustainable, pointing out that for many years, Nigerian students have been sent overseas for higher education, while foreign students hardly come into the country to study. “It is unheard of that, over the years, we’re the only ones going to other countries to study without them coming to our country,” the ASUU president said.
ASUU argued that rather than spending scarce national resources funding scholarships that only benefit a select few and promote academic migration, the government should prioritise building a robust and attractive local university system. The union emphasized that investing in Nigeria’s public universities would not only stop the outflow of talent but also help in transforming the country into a destination for academic excellence across Africa.
“If the government can redirect even the small amounts spent on foreign scholarships to our own universities, we can begin to see meaningful progress,” ASUU noted. The union insists that such funding—no matter how limited—could be used to improve infrastructure, upgrade learning equipment, enhance research capabilities, and raise the general standard of education in Nigerian institutions.
ASUU went further to propose a five-year policy focus by the government, dedicated solely to revitalising public universities. The union believes that with such commitment, the Nigerian university system can be transformed to a level that attracts global recognition and participation.
“So, let the government use just five years to attend to challenges facing our public universities by equipping them with necessary infrastructures and equipment, pay the lecturers and other university workers living wages, make the environment conducive and so forth,” ASUU said. “We will all see the level of development that such investment will bring into our education and other sectors of the economy.”
The union believes that education remains the foundation of national development, and strengthening higher education institutions will produce long-term economic and social benefits for the country and the African continent at large.
In its view, continuous reliance on foreign education weakens the local system and stifles its ability to grow. ASUU therefore called on policymakers to see this moment not just as an end to a policy, but as a beginning of a much-needed transformation in the education sector.
Stakeholders across the country and beyond are now watching closely to see whether the Nigerian government will match this decisive policy move with concrete action toward improving local university education and building institutions that can compete globally.
