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University of East London – the West African Choice
Nigeria and Ghana has been exporting students to the UK for decades. Most universities have an ‘Africa’ person, but what that really means is that they have a ‘Nigeria’ person! Someone who can do a multi-city visit throughout Nigeria, presenting the university to hundreds of hopeful students.
Well that’s my job for the University of East London. I have the pleasure of visiting West Africa almost four times a year. My typical trip involves a flight into Lagos, followed by Port Harcourt and then Warri followed by Abuja, then back to Lagos for the two hour drive to Ibadan before heading off to Accra and Kumasi in Ghana.
When I arrive in Lagos it’s almost like coming home bearing in mind that my parents are from Bangladesh, almost 7,000 miles to the east. The noise, the heat, the piles of luggage that no one seems to claim at the airport has a distinct habit of reminding me of Dhaka. That’s not all, the people, their culture and traditions are strikingly similar too which is why I feel right at home whether I’m with friends from Yoruba, Hausa or Ebu, eating jollaf rice with pepper chicken!
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UEL now has over 19,000 students of which just this year we recruited over 450 students from Nigeria and Ghana. We are also within the top five Universities of choice for West African students. |
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On a more serious note, the University of East London has been a firm favourite of Nigerians for good reasons. If you look at the location of the University, it’s situated on an interesting crossroads. The new Docklands campus is set in the heart of the new ‘financial city’ of London. It denotes wealth, power and enterprise. Yet the Stratford campus is in the heart of the old East End, a place where you’re likely to find a branch of your local church in Lagos as well as elaborate Hindu temples and Muslim mosques. A place where you’re likely to find restaurants selling the latest in South Asian cuisine alongside fufu and meat pies!
Although we are led to believe location is everything, that’s not the main reason so many Nigerians and Ghanaians come to study at UEL. It’s our diverse range of programmes ranging from the traditional subjects such as Law and Economics to the more cutting edge such as Computer Forensics and International Development. We are currently offering almost 200 different programmes across a range of disciplines.
We are also proud to be able to offer a vast range of combined degrees to our students. The combined degree programmes can offer increased flexibility in both university life and in career choices. So whether a student wants to study English literature with Law or Health with Business Studies, they can gain a plethora of knowledge and skills which can be applied in a huge range of career opportunities.
In addition to having the Combined Degree Programmes, UEL also has a wide range of Extended Degree Programmes. These allow people who don’t have the formal university entrance qualifications, to get a place at UEL and go on to complete a degree. This has been very popular with many of our mature students who have decided to have a career change or simply go back to complete their education at a later stage in life.
The Extended Degree incorporates an extra year that provides the necessary background knowledge, skills and learning to prepare the students for entry onto their chosen degree programme.
The University of East London’s ‘state-of –the-art’ new campus at Docklands has been part of our £110 million expansion project. Our Docklands Campus was opened in 2000 to critical acclaim for its iconic architecture. Once completed this summer, the campus will include:
•A stunning new waterfront building which will house a state-of-the-art Learning Resources Centre, new IT labs and a new 400-seat lecture theatre.
•A new Knowledge Exchange Centre, which brings together and expands all of our business-facing activities and services, ranging from incubator and start-up space through to the new Petchey Centre for Entrepreneurship as part of our Business School.
•A new Student Village on the waterfront with studio accommodation for over 800 students.
Our Stratford Campus has also undergone development. The historic former Central Library adjacent to our facilities has been transformed into an inspirational new networked learning resource centre and we’ve created new Students’ Union facilities including an Internet Café in an architecturally stunning former museum. The instillation of a new 250-seat lecture theatre has also been completed along with our new London Foot Hospital, which will house facilities for our podiatric medicine students.
I look forward to going back to West Africa sometime soon to soak up the sun by the beach in Accra or trundle through the mid-day traffic in Lagos – either way I get to spend time with some incredible friends that I have made and also manage to recruit huge numbers of students for UEL. I often have to remember that it’s not all a holiday!
Mr. Shamim Ghani
International recruitment Officer – Africa
University of East London
Longbridge Road
Barking
Essex.
Tel. +44 (0) 208 223 2805
Fax. +44 (0) 208 590 9203
Email: international@uel.ac.uk
Web: www.uel.ac.uk
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