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AU helps first private college open in Nigeria
By Kaylor Garcia on 2/5/07
The American University of Nigeria-ABTI, or AAUN, will be the first university in sub-Saharan Africa styled after American universities, partially because of the efforts of AU faculty members who have been working with Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar to create the university for the past four years.
Until now, AU had never done anything of this magnitude, Dr. Robert Pastor, AU's Vice President of International Affairs and a main collaborator with ABTI, said. ABTI is an abbreviation derived from Abubakar's children's names.
The collaboration began when AAUN planners approached AU faculty to request their help in creating Nigeria's first private university. Louis Goodman, dean of the School of International Service, met with planners to register AAUN with the Universities Commission of Nigeria in January 2003. After feasibility studies, multiple consultations and the selection of administrators and faculty, the AAUN accepted its first students in April 2005, according to the university's Web site.
Since the school's opening, enrollment has steadily increased each year, with 90 students admitted for the current spring semester. AAUN currently has 380 students in attendance, triple the number of students at the school's opening, according to the Web site.
"I think what's most interesting is even in the first year, people dropped out of [the best public university in Nigeria] where they were paying no fees, to go to ABTI and pay $6,000," Pastor said. "When asked why, students responded, 'We want an education.'"
According to Pastor, students' dissatisfaction with public universities stemmed from persistent closings because of strikes, professors who were not serious and the "unproductive" education style.
Before AAUN, upper- and middle-class families sent their children abroad, but the opening of the new university provides the same type of education more cheaply and in a location closer to home, Pastor said.
Until now, AU had never done anything of this magnitude, Dr. Robert Pastor, AU's Vice President of International Affairs and a main collaborator with ABTI, said. ABTI is an abbreviation derived from Abubakar's children's names.
The collaboration began when AAUN planners approached AU faculty to request their help in creating Nigeria's first private university. Louis Goodman, dean of the School of International Service, met with planners to register AAUN with the Universities Commission of Nigeria in January 2003. After feasibility studies, multiple consultations and the selection of administrators and faculty, the AAUN accepted its first students in April 2005, according to the university's Web site.
Since the school's opening, enrollment has steadily increased each year, with 90 students admitted for the current spring semester. AAUN currently has 380 students in attendance, triple the number of students at the school's opening, according to the Web site.
"I think what's most interesting is even in the first year, people dropped out of [the best public university in Nigeria] where they were paying no fees, to go to ABTI and pay $6,000," Pastor said. "When asked why, students responded, 'We want an education.'"
According to Pastor, students' dissatisfaction with public universities stemmed from persistent closings because of strikes, professors who were not serious and the "unproductive" education style.
Before AAUN, upper- and middle-class families sent their children abroad, but the opening of the new university provides the same type of education more cheaply and in a location closer to home, Pastor said.
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