A delegation comprising a select Universities in Egypt led by the President of Cairo University, Professor Emad Shalaby, recently paid a courtesy call on the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, FCVSN, in his office.
The aim of the visit was to strengthen the existing educational ties between Egypt and Nigeria, while exploring collaborations, opportunities, cooperation and support between the universities in both countries.
Meanwhile, the key discussions centred on key areas such as academic exchange, research collaboration and knowledge-sharing, which are regarded as essential elements crucial for enriching the educational experiences of staff and students alike.
In his remarks the Executive Secretary, NUC, Professor Ribadu informed the delegation that the Commission is highly interested in any meaningful engagement that would lead to quality university education, especially within the African region so that African problems could be addressed by the citizens themselves and pledged all the necessary support towards the venture.
He pointed out that the Commission is actively involved and currently in the process of midwifing a number of Transnational Education (TNE) collaborations between UK Universities and their Nigerian counterparts.
In his remarks, the team leader and President of Cairo University Professor Shalaby noted that Egypt and Nigeria shares a number of things in common being agrarian and also a highly intellectual societies, he said Egyptian Universities were interested in forging collaborations with their Nigerian counterparts in areas of academic exchange, research and innovations that would help them build and attain world class status.
At the meeting were the NUC Acting Directors of: Academic Planning (DAP), Mr. Abubakar Mohammed Girei; Accreditation (DA), Engr. Abraham Chundusu; Executive Secretary’s Office (DESO), Mr. Jubril Momoh, Open Distance and e-Learning (DODeL), Dr. Funmilayo Morebise, represented by the Deputy Director, Open and Distance Learning, Mrs. Hadiza Ramallan as well as the Head of Special Duties, in the Executive Secretary’s Office, Dr. Abubakar Mohammed Tanko.
He disclosed that Cairo University, for which he superintends as President, equivalent of a Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria, is Egypt’s premier public university.
He highlighted that its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo and founded on 21 December 1908, after being housed in various parts of Cairo, while its faculties, beginning with the Faculty of Arts, were established on its current main campus in Giza in October 1929. According to him, the university was known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu’ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, and remained the second oldest institution of higher education in Egypt after Al-Azhar University.