Recently, Babajide Ogundeji, Regional Manager, Africa of Aston University, UK, was in Benin to prospect for new intakes. Some select few reporters engaged him in a chat.
Excerpts:
In subsaharan Africa our priority countries for now are Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Nigeria has the lion share of students who come to the UK. Basically, we are here in Benin to meet with potential students who are looking to study in the UK and to offer them what we call the Aston University advantage.
Aston University is a top university in the UK. Currently, we are the UK university of the year. We had the recognition from Guardian UK ranking and that was released in November last year. Also late last year we were awarded the best entrepreneur university of the year in UK by Times Higher Education. The Guardian and Times Higher Education are two leading award bodies in the UK as far as universities rankings are concerned.
Now, in terms of what we offer to students. At Aston University we don’t just teach for knowledge, we teach for employability. We raise graduates who are able to go into the work world within six months after graduation at Aston University. Our employability ranking is about 96 percent in the United Kingdom and our students satisfaction ranking is 88 percent.
At Aston University we offer one year work placement as part of the program at Aston University. We are the first UK university to offer work placement to students. We have been doing that in the last fifty years. We have a strong career placement team. What they do is that when students come on campus we connect them with the team and the team helps to build their profile. They help to work on their CV. We connect them with potential employers around and outside Birmingham. Three times a year on campus we organise job shops where we connect them with potential employers.
Also, we know what the situation is across the globe with Covid-19 effect. From this September, we are offering students up to £10,000 scholarship to study at Aston University. I can tell you with all sense of modesty that within the last one year we have had a good number of Nigerian students who have been awarded £8,000, £2000 and £5,000 scholarships as part of their fees discount. For students who have a first class they can get automatic scholarship of £5,000. They don’t need to apply. That scholarship is called global excellence scholarship. For those who have second class upper grade they can get £2,000. For those who have second class lower grade they can apply for £3,000 global ambassador scholarship or the Vice Chancellor’s scholarship. Infact, we advice matured students, students who have rich years of work experience to apply for the Vice Chancellor’s. For the Vice Chancellor’s scholarship we are looking for students who have work experience, who can be representatives of the university, people who have made impact in their career field.
We have a journalist at Channels TV studying with us currently. He is studying International Relations and Global Governance. He has the award of £8,000 Vice Chancellor’s international scholarship. All these scholarships are open to students. Just last week, we announced a new award, the university of the year scholarship. It’s £10,000. This scholarship is to promote our recognition as the best university in the UK at least for the next one year.
Aston University is reputed to have a strong business school. Our business school has got triple accreditation which is the highest recognition any business school can have in the world. In the whole of UK there are less than 20 universities that have got triple accreditation for their business school. Aston University is one of those universities.
We are pro-Nigeria. At Aston University we have many Nigerians lecturing. For example, the Programme Director, Business and Management is a Nigerian, Dr. Uche. He is from Delta State. Our Programme Director for Information System and Business Analysis is a Nigerian as well. Dr. Priscilla. We have Nigerian lecturers in many areas on campus. We have supported Nigerians to study in the UK and Aston University in the last 60 years. The chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, Lamin Manjang, is an alumnus of Aston University. Secondly, the daughter of the Vice President, Like Osinbajo is also an alumnus of Aston University. She did Law.
PS any question?
ask@aston.ac.uk +44(0)1212044910
