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Dr. Jerome Griffin, President of Nubian American Advanced College (NAAC), Lekki, Lagos, has stated that the partnership between the college and Johnson C. Smith University (JSCU), USA, will help students understand and change some of the problems they are likely to face in the future.
He stated this on Tuesday, July 15, while speaking with journalists at a reception organised by the management of NAAC to welcome a high-profile delegation from JSCU.
Speaking at the welcome reception held in honour of JSCU’s President, Dr. Valerie Kinloch, Dr. Griffin described the collaboration between NAAC and JSCU as a strategic partnership.
He added that NAAC is seeking to create a relationship between historical black colleges and universities in America to ensure that students of both institutions are engaged to be able to understand and change some of the problems they would face in the future. Also, Dr. Griffin stated that the future of education in various countries, including the US, Canada and the continent of Africa, had been impacted by artificial intelligence technology and by technology as a whole.
While noting that over 70 percent of the Nigerian population is under the age of 25, he opined that both universities in the partnership understand that the direction of the future and the world is to empower young people with the power to be able to change the problems that they will encounter. He highlighted the problems as climate change, robotics and being able to educate a child in Abuja and another in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the same time.
On the challenges that might arise due to a bad network signal, considering that some of the college’s lecturers will deliver lectures virtually, Dr. Griffin revealed that the Microsoft platform being used by NAAC ensures that their students, either in Nigeria or the United States and the faculty can all engage at the same time. He also stated that the institution is working to ensure that the standard in NAAC is at par with what is obtainable in the United States.
Shining light on the collaboration, Dr.Kinloch, noted that the event is the beginning of a global partnership that is needed. She added that both institutions entering into the partnership share the same passion about education, as the energy from NAAC is the same as that in the university, where she is President.
Kinloch noted that she is not only excited to support NAAC, but wants the college to also support the work they would do in collaboration with each other.
On his part, Mr. Patrick Ida Oyinkari, NAAC’s Provost and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), while highlighting the approval level of the college, posited that the NAAC is recognized and approved by the federal ministry of education for the federal government of Nigeria, and accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
Ida Oyinkari added that what NAAC is doing is a two-year program associated with community colleges in the US, which is akin to the associate degree granted in the United States. He noted that NAAC is walking into a community to ensure that no one in the community is left without having something useful and meaningful to do in society, adding that the college is built to stand on a tripod as a college, as an educational institution and to bridge the community with industries.
The Provost affirmed that there are several qualities that NAAC and JSCU have, adding that this partnership would ensure that students on both sides would become citizens of the world who can make a very good impact.
Emphasizing the importance of the collaboration, Mrs. Bola Fashola, NAAC’s Vice President Global and Corporate Affairs, stated that NAAC’s association with several universities in America started a while ago. According to her, the partnership started with Tennessee State University, after which the college entered into a partnership with Sourcy University in Baltimore, and then Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Also, she noted that NAAC had signed a fourth partnership with Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States.
Furthermore, Fashola stated that the trajectory of NAAC is to get students and ensure parents believe in the college because they are raising the next generation of leaders, the future leaders of Nigeria. She added that the college would ensure that the minds of the students who come to Nubian are transformed and they understand that they have a responsibility to impact the community in a way that shows that their existence is not on an island, but it’s touching lives, blooming and excelling wherever they are.
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