Morgan State University has made it a point to recruit qualified talent from around the world. This time, MSU has found high-level talent all the way from Nigeria! Get the full story about Morgan State’s new partnership from William Carter at WBAL NewsRadio below.
In a partnership with the Nigerian Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Morgan State University will host 85 doctoral or postdoctoral students from Nigeria starting the Fall 2021 semester.
The five-year agreement was “designed to create a pathway for students to pursue disciplines relevant to the developmental needs of Nigeria,” according to the news release.
“The leadership team of Morgan State University extends its thanks to the Federal Government of Nigeria, Executive Secretary Suleiman Bogoro and the TETFund for this unique and historic opportunity to achieve our common goals in social advancement, economic development and most important the academic exchange and advanced degree attainment within the African continent,” David Wilson, Morgan State University’s president said,
The 70 Nigerian doctoral students and more than 15 Nigerian postdoctoral students attending surpassed “original projections” when more than 600 students applied for the program.
“Morgan has had great success over the past three years, raising our number of graduating Ph.D. students from 40 to 50 per year to close to 70, and sustaining that number,” said Dr. Astatke, assistant vice president for Morgan’s Division of International Affairs. “With the TETFund partnership, we will add close to 70 more doctoral graduates each year for the next five years. It is easy to envision MSU rising from the pack to become the nation’s leader in conferring Ph.Ds. to Black students. This will be a significant boost toward our strategic goal of moving Morgan from our current classification as an R2 (‘high research’) institution to an R1 (‘very high research’) institution.”
The partnership, originally launched in May of 2020 with just 17 Nigerian Ph.D. students, was disrupted due to COVID-19, but it has the potential to have an expansive selection of Ph.D. candidates.
“If it continues for 10 years, Morgan will have maybe 500 Ph.D. alumni in the leadership of the top universities in Nigeria, the most populous nation on the continent,” Astatke said. “The relationships we are building now will enable international research collaborations that will make a beneficial impact on generations to come.”
