The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has dismissed concerns about a mass exodus of Nigerian students to foreign universities, saying the trend has reversed sharply under the current administration.
Alausa made the assertion on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television where he said investments in academic continuity and institutional quality had made Nigerian universities significantly more attractive to prospective students.
The presenter had cited 2023 data indicating that Nigeria ranked third globally for outbound student mobility, accounting for about five per cent of worldwide student movement, behind only China and India.
Alausa rejected the figures as stale and unrepresentative of current conditions.
“That’s not Japa. And please, qualify your data. Thank God you told me it was 2023 figure,” he said.
The minister said that year coincided with a period of severe disruption in Nigeria’s education system, marked by prolonged academic shutdowns and underinvestment in tertiary institutions.
He said conditions had since changed materially.
“2023 was when we came in. There was no academic continuity. They had the kind of extensive investment you’ve made in a tertiary education that wasn’t there,” he said.
Alausa said his ministry’s educational support services department had been tracking outbound student movement and had recorded a steep decline in the numbers leaving to study abroad.
“We’ve seen precipitous drop in those number of student going out. Our tertiary institutions are better now. We have academic continuity, academic session continuity,” he said.
He pointed to the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board, known as JUPEB which is Nigeria’s equivalent of the British A-levels, as evidence of growing confidence in local alternatives.
He said the programme, previously sought abroad by students hoping to gain entry into foreign universities, was now being taken domestically and was oversubscribed.
Alausa cited the University of Lagos law school and other top institutions as further examples of programmes turning away applicants due to excess demand.
“Kids are staying there. The quality of education is significantly better. If you now compare the 2023 data with 2024 and 2025 and see the precipitous drop of Nigeria going out,” he said.
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