Nigerian student grabs first class in Saudi varsity

A female student from Katsina state, Ummukhulthum Abubakar Sadiq has bagged first class degree in Medicine from Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
She was thus conferred with Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) and has also received a prize as one of the best graduating students.
Reports revealed that Ummukhulthum attended ABC Academy and Nurul-Bayan International Academy, Abuja, and went further to complete her senior secondary education at Nigerian Tulip International College, Abuja in 2011.
Her father said Ummukhulthum completed the recitation of the Holy Qur’an in 2005 at the age of 10 and memorising it in four years, between 2014 and 2018.
Note that Nigerian students in foreign universities are gaining more reputation for their academic feats.
Recall that in February Christiana Udoh emerged as the first Nigerian to win the Dudley Newitt Prize for Experimental Excellence award at the Imperial College in London.
Why FG gives nod to first private varsity in Kano
The federal government said that it had approved Skyline University in Kano and considering other private universities in order to address the problem of frustrated admission seekers in Nigeria.
Skyline University, Kano, is the 74th private university in Nigeria, even as the National Universities Commission (NUC) is looking forward to approving 292 more.
The federal government, at its federal executive council meeting, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, approved the establishment of Skyline University, Kano.
The institution is said to be the first private university in Kano state.
The approval of this institution has increased the number of private universities in Nigeria to 74.
Currently, Nigeria has 163 universities out of which 47 are state-owned, 42 are owned by the federal government and 73 are founded by private individuals.
The Executive Secretary of NUC Abdul Rasheed Abubakar, while speaking at the annual conference of the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency, said that NUC was processing 292 applications from institutions that will become private universities.
The approval of the universities, NUC boss said, was meant to address the growing youth population and admission seekers in Nigeria.
‘’Only 19 percent of the two million students who applied for university education were admitted last year, with about 30 per cent either going abroad or pursuing vocational studies.
‘’This is a very serious situation. One million students did not get access to university not because they had failed their exams, but because the capacity is not there,”
“It is a dangerous thing to have this problem of frustrated youths who are left out on the streets,” Abubakar said.
However, most of the yet-to-be-approved private universities are specialist institutions, such as private medical schools and creative arts colleges.