AU formally ended its relationship with its second overseas school, the American University of Nigeria at the end of last year, according to AU President Neil Kerwin’s Jan. 12 memorandum.
AUN, located in Yola, was founded in January 2004 as a collaborative effort between AU and the then vice president of Nigeria and prominent businessman Atiku Abubakar.
AU and the school had a five-year contract that ended in 2009. During those five years AU developed and provided support for all aspects of the school. AU then renewed the contract for one-year terms until December 2011.
“AUN continues to mature as an institution, has graduated three classes of undergraduates and is now well positioned to function more independently,” Kerwin said in his memorandum. “Therefore, AU and AUN leaders mutually agreed to end our consultancy when the contract expired at the end of 2011.”
Dr. Robert Pastor, a professor in the School of International Service and the vice president of International Affairs at AU from 2002 - 2007, spearheaded the project of developing the American University in Nigeria.
“One of my jobs was to explore new ways to relate AU to the world, such as setting up universities abroad,” Pastor said.
AUN was the first American-style University in Nigeria, as opposed to the traditional British-style non-interactive education, and is now the best private university in Sub-Saharan Africa, Pastor said.
There are around 1,400 students in three schools: Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology. Three classes have graduated from AUN.
AU was completely involved in the process of recruiting teachers, designing the curriculum and even designing the buildings.
The advantage of establishing such a university was that Nigerian students could study at an internationally recognized university without having to leave the country, and were thus more likely to stay in Nigeria after completing their education, Pastor said.
“Nigeria has had an economic boom over the last several years, and many that benefited were inclined to send their children overseas for a first-rate education,” said Carl LeVan, an SIS professor who coordinated a course with and visited AUN in Fall 2007. “However, there’s a social emphasis on keeping students in the country.”
Over the past several years, AUN has grown more independent and mature, which is what led AU to stop supporting AUN and dissolve the AUN office on-campus.
“Overall, I think the establishment was not only one of the most rewarding things for me, personally, but also one of the most important contributions by AU to education development in Africa,” Pastor said.
Pastor has not been directly involved in AUN for the past few years, but he said the institution has matured.
“However, I believe, personally, that this also presents a new opportunity for AU that would be no longer administrative,” he said.
He said he hopes AU will continue to receive AUN students should they wish to study abroad here.
Forty-nine students from AUN have studied abroad at AU, and a lesser number from AU have studied abroad at AUN, according to Pastor.
AU will continue to receive students from AUN, but will not send AU students to Nigeria given security concerns regarding the recent ethnic and religious clashes in the country, according to AU Abroad Associate Director Mark Hayes. These clashes have not been cited as a reason for AU’s decision to end its relationship with AUN.
