The European Union on Monday announced that over 200 young Nigerians have received postgraduate scholarships to study in top European universities.
The new figure places Nigeria second among countries with the highest number of students selected for the programme in 2022 – coming only after Pakistan.
The scholarship, according to the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Samuela Isopi, is awarded under its flagship educational programme, Erasmus+.
The Envoy said this year’s figure represents a steep increase from the number of Nigerians that benefited from the initiative last year.
In the last four years, the number of recipients have continued to increase, rising from 44 awardees in 2019; 93 in 2020; 133 in 2021 to currently over 200 awardees in 2022.
From ninth position in 2020 and sixth in 2021, Nigeria now has the second highest number of beneficiaries globally, leaving behind countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, India and Mexico in the top bracket of countries with most awards globally.
So far, Over 730 Nigerians have benefitted from the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree since 2004
Isopi added that the increase in the number of award recipients reflects the premium the EU places on its partnership with Nigeria.
The strictly merit-based award will see awardees traverse 20 different European countries. The minimum number of countries of mobility for each student is three, some of the courses will take the beneficiaries to as many as six different countries.
The studies will run for 12-24 months, after which each scholarship awardee will receive a masters degree to be jointly awarded by a consortium of universities.
The Erasmus programme was set up in 1987.
Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie
