SU Forges New Partnership with Community College in Lagos, Nigeria

SALISBURY, MD---Students from Nubian American Advanced College (NAAC) in Lagos, Nigeria, will be eligible to transfer to Salisbury University after two years of study at NAAC thanks to a recent agreement signed by SU President Carolyn Ringer Lepre and NAAC President Joseph Isaac.

NAAC is a tertiary education provider resetting the basis for higher learning by pioneering the American community college system in Nigeria. Nubian American and SU agreed to a transfer protocol that allows future students to begin their studies at NAAC’s main campus in Lagos and transfer up to 60 credits toward a B.A. or B.S. at SU.

“SU is proud to be collaborating in this way for the first time with a Nigerian institution that offers an American-style, two-year community college degree,” said Dr. Brian Stiegler, SU assistant provost for international education. “SU has had great success with similar agreements in China, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. The growth in the higher education sector in Nigeria in recent years makes this new partnership a valuable asset both to NAAC and SU.”

Isaac, a graduate of Morgan State University, visited Salisbury to sign the agreement and to meet with key academic leaders on campus.

The agreement comes at a time when higher education enrollment in Africa, and U.S. higher education’s engagement with this evolving marketplace, are both growing, as evidenced by the cover story in the February 3, 2023 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Is Africa the New China?” The Chronicle is the leading professional publication on higher education in the U.S.

During SU’s most recent application cycle, its Janet Dudley-Eshbach Center for International Education received almost 200 undergraduate applications from potential students in Nigeria and Ghana, making up 39% of the applications from international students for Salisbury’s undergraduate program.

“The greatest challenge for applicants from Nigeria and Ghana is the ability to pay American college tuition fees,” said Dr. Susan Mahoney, the center’s senior advisor for international admissions. “The new agreement with NAAC is meant to significantly reduce the cost of the SU undergraduate degree by allowing students to study the first two years at home in Nigeria.”

Ogechi Felicia Ibegbu, director of admission records, registration and U.S. students transfer at NAAC, has already begun to advise students about the new partnership. SU expects to receive its first degree-seeking transfer students from Nubian American in the coming semesters.

For more information about international education at SU, visit the Janet Dudley-Eshbach Center for International Education webpage.

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